A Year in the Life of Blaine Warbler Anderson
by Kurt'sBlaine4ever
Summary: This is basically Season 2 of Glee told through Blaine's POV. Consider it a canon rewrite, with slight bits of AU thrown in for good measure.
1. Introduction

**A/N: So this is my first time writing any sort of fanfiction, let alone Klaine. I would like to thank my editor, William Nolan for proofreading and giving me notes on my story. I'm thinking this is going to be a multi-chapter, retelling of Season 2 of Glee, but through Blaine's POV.**

**I do not own Glee. That masterpiece belongs to Ryan Murphy, and the writers. However, I will have a couple of original characters strewn throughout this story. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. **

It was the end of summer, and Blaine was not too excited about it. The end of sophomore year had been tough on him, especially with transferring from his old public school to a private, all boys academy. Thankfully, he had his boyfriend, Xander, and his budding new friendship with Wes and David from the Warblers. Seeing as how both of them were on vacation with their girlfriends, it gave Blaine and Xander some time to themselves.

On the last day of summer, Blaine was sitting in his empty room, when he felt his phone vibrate.

From: Xander

"Hey Blaine, can we meet at Starbucks? I have something I want to talk to you about." - X -

Blaine hastily typed a response,

From: Blaine

"Yeah sure. I can be there in half an hour. Love you." - B -

He didn't get a reply with an "I love you too," which Blaine found strange. However, he didn't think anything of it, threw on a cardigan, and headed out.

He couldn't wait to see Xander since they hadn't seen or spoken to each other all day. Seniors at Dalton had the privilege of moving into their rooms a day early, so it made sense that Xander couldn't hang out with Blaine. He couldn't help but think back to how he and Xander met:

_It was his second day at Dalton, and Blaine was completely and utterly lost. As he was standing, campus map in hand, a tall, blonde haired, fair-skinned boy came up to him and said "Hey, you lost or something?"_

_Blaine was taken aback, because this was the first person who had decided to actually speak to him. And it didn't hurt that he was actually pretty decent to look at. He mumbled in reply, "No, not lost, just the new kid, trying to find his way around...ok maybe I am lost. Where is the math hall?"_

_The boy couldn't help but laugh before responding, "It's ok, I get it. Dalton is huge. It's pretty easy to get lost in this maze of hallways. I'm Xander, by the way."_

_"I'm Blaine. It's a pleasure to meet you," Blaine said, using his best manners possible. _

_"Ever the gentleman, aren't we?" Xander said in a sly response. "I look forward to seeing you around school, Blaine. The math hall is down the corridor, to the right." He turned around, shot Blaine a wink, and walked in the other direction. _

_'Maybe transferring here won't be so bad after all,' he thought to himself.  
><em>

As Blaine got out of his Jetta, he couldn't help but smile as he saw Xander's BMW in the parking lot, a few spots away from his. He walked inside, and already saw Xander sitting at a table, venti cup in hand.

'That's weird,' Blaine thought to himself. 'Xander always waits for me before he orders his coffee.' He tried to just shrug it off again as he got to the barista. "Can I get a medium iced drip with room for cream?" he ordered swiftly.

"Anything else for you today, dear?" the barista asked warmly.

Blaine answered, "I think that'll be it for today. Thank you very much."

"That will be $1.85," she informed him.

He gave her $3.00 and told her, "Keep the change." The barista handed him his coffee, and he sauntered over to the table Xander was sitting at. Blaine could feel that something was off with Xander, and this whole situation, and was growing concerned. "Hey babe, how was your day? Did you get everything settled into your room?" Blaine asked, still trying to sound cheerful and nonchalant.

"Everything went fine," Xander explained flatly. "Blaine, we need to talk."

Blaine suddenly sat up much more rigidly in his chair. He knew that hearing those four words in combination was never a good thing, but he kept up his show face, and tried to hide the worry he felt. "Is everything ok? Did something happen today?" he inquired.

Xander just sat across from him, no emotion in his face or words. "No, nothing happened today. Blaine, we need to talk about us," he said using his finger to gesture between the two of them. "This isn't really working out for me," he continued on.

To say that Blaine was shocked would be an understatement. The two of them were just talking yesterday about how Blaine wanted to audition for the Warblers his junior year so the two of them could spend even more time together. Blaine was dumbstruck, and all he could manage to say was "Did I do something to upset or annoy you, Xander?"

Blaine was not expecting to hear the next words that came out of his now ex boyfriend's mouth. "No of course not. This has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with me. I'm a senior now, and I'm gonna be going away to college next year, and I don't want to hurt you in the long run," he said, sounding almost rehearsed.

"Of course. The whole 'it's not you, it's me' routine. I get it, Xander. If you were bored, or not satisfied with me, you could have said something earlier on and spared both of us the trouble," Blaine spat out. He was angry, but tried to keep his composure and manners about him. As he got up to walk out of the coffee shop, he took one last look at Xander and said, "Don't let the Warblers know about our breakup. It's none of their business, and I don't need that affecting my audition. Have a nice life, Xander."

As Blaine was getting into his car, he paused, hoping against hope that Xander would try and chase after him, try and apologize. Something. But after a few minutes, and Xander still hadn't even flinched from the table, Blaine knew there was nothing left, and drove back home. He waited until he was in the confines of his room before he finally let his emotions out, and he cried. 'Tomorrow is not going to be pleasant,' he thought to himself before sleep inevitably overtook him.


	2. Audition

**A/N: So this is the official first Chapter. Blaine's first day as a junior at Dalton, and his audition for the Warblers. Hope you all like it. **

He had spent the better part of two hours crying into his pillow. "I just don't understand what I did," he screamed out loud. Blaine was sincerely heartbroken. He told Xander he loved him, gave himself to him, and was a perfect gentleman the whole time they were together. He had to know why Xander just broke up with him. He grabbed his iPhone, and typed out

To Xander: Did I do something wrong? Honestly, this all seemed so out of the blue, and I would just like to know what I did to upset you so much.

-B-

He waited for what seemed like hours until Blaine finally heard his texting tone, signifying Xander's response.

To Blaine: The honest truth? You're too good for me. You're so perfect all the time, and I feel like I didn't deserve that. You always treated me, and everyone around you with nothing but kindness, and I didn't know how to handle it. I was just some boring guy in Glee Club that thought you were very handsome. The past 6 months have been fantastic. You deserve someone who is going to complement you in every single way. Be the yin to your yang, and clearly I am not that person. I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way. And I won't tell the Warblers anything. Goodbye, Blaine.

-X-

Tears were welling up in Blaine's eyes again, and he threw his phone down onto the floor. He needed something, anything to distract him from the pain he was going through at the moment. He figured that now was as good a time as any to decide on his audition song, so he picked up his iPhone and started rifling through different artists. He finally decided to just put it on shuffle, and listen until he found the perfect song. The sounds of Adele, Death Cab for Cutie, Katy Perry, and Imogen Heap flowed through Blaine's ears for about 45 minutes. As he was about to resort to the Internet to help him find something, a song shuffled into his iPod, and he immediately knew he had found the perfect song. "This will give them something to think about," he said to himself.

Picking out the perfect song was a good distraction from everything that had happened that day, and by the time Blaine had finished the rest of his packing, his spirits had somewhat lifted. He knew that seeing Xander around school was going to be tough and really awkward, but Blaine also knew that it didn't do to dwell on things that have already happened. His audition song was the perfect song, not only for the audition, but also to show Xander that he was trying to move on. He had to text Wes, so he grabbed his phone off hid vacant desk, and typed out

To Wes: So I have found the perfect song for my audition tomorrow. You, David, and Thad are going to be thoroughly blown away. Just sayin'. -B-

Wes replied almost immediately,

To Blaine: We will just see about that, Anderson. Don't think David and I will be easy on you, just cuz we're friends. Break a leg. I'm sure you will. ;-)

-W-

And with that, Blaine shut his light off, and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning was a whirlwind. Not only was it the first day of junior year, but Blaine also had not moved into his dorm room yet, so all of his belongings were jammed into his car. He also had not had his beloved morning medium drip, and he was super groggy.

"Blaine, honey, you're gonna be late if you don't leave right now. And it's a long drive from Lima to Westerville," Blaine heard his mom shout from downstairs. She was right though, his parents lived on the outskirts of Lima, OH, which was almost two hours away from Dalton Academy in Westerville.

"Alright, mom. I'm coming!" he shouted from the top of the stairs, dressed in his uniform of a navy blazer with red piping, a blue and red tie, gray dress slacks, and black Oxford shoes. His hair was also gelled down, giving the impression that his typically curly hair was under control. "Is there coffee?" he asked his mom, "I am running late and don't have time to stop."

"I made you a fresh cup right here. Hazelnut creamer, just like you like it, darling," his mom gestured warmly to the cup sitting to her left. "Have a great first day darling, and call us when you're all settled in," she said.

He gave his mom a hug, and said, "Thanks mom. I love you so much. And I will." He turned to his father and said, "I'll see you next weekend father when I come home."

His father simply looked at him and said, "Make us proud son. We are paying an awful lot of money to send you to this private school."

Blaine simply nodded in response, and walked out the door. He didn't understand why his father had to send him off with those as his last words. He wished that the two of them could have more of a father/son relationship. There was something though that kept a distance between them, and Blaine had a pretty good idea of what it was. He wanted to talk to him about it. 'Maybe when I'm home next weekend, I can sit down and have a conversation with him,' Blaine thought to himself. He turned on the radio, and lo and behold, the song he was going to sing for his audition happened to be playing. Blaine couldn't help but sing along to it.

As he pulled his Jetta into the boarder's lot with a few minutes to spare before the morning bell, he glimpsed Wes and David almost immediately. "Hey guys! How was your summer?" he asked of the two boys jovially.

"Absolutely breathtaking! California is so amazing during the summer!" Wes exclaimed.

David chimed in with, "Too gorgeous for words!"

"Well I'm glad the two of you had a great summer away from dreary old Ohio," Blaine said with a smile. "I cannot wait to hear stories of your adventures," he added. At that moment, he heard three chimes, signaling that first period was about to start. "I've gotta run to American Lit. See you guys in Glee Club," Blaine said as he sped off towards the English building.

Classes seemed to inch by the whole day. Every period was the same thing; pass out the syllabus, explain class rules, homework policies, etc. By the time Blaine got to the end of seventh period, he was actually thankful that he had his Warblers audition almost immediately after. He was however, a little apprehensive. He had been lucky enough not to see Xander all day, and Blaine knew that he had to see him in Glee Club.

When he arrived at the doors to the senior commons, a wave of nerves crashed on top of him. He knew his song like the back of his hand, but something made him suddenly very nervous. As Blaine pulled the doors open, the first person he saw was Xander, and the knot in his stomach wound even tighter. He sat down on a couch on the other side of the room, trying not to look across the room at where Xander was sitting, entertaining some Warblers. Blaine was very thankful when he saw Wes, David, and Thad walk into the room and take their seats behind the council table.

"This first meeting of the Warblers will be called to order," Wes shouted over the noise. He pounded his gavel onto the table and everyone instantly silenced. "Our first order of business is to welcome some members of our student body who wish to audition for the Warblers. Starting us out, we have Blaine Anderson. The floor is yours." Wes concluded his speech and gazed over at Blaine, beckoning him to the center of the room.

Blaine rose up from his seat, and proceeded to the center of the senior commons. He could feel everyone's eyes on him. "Hello, my name is Blaine Anderson, and I will be singing 'Haven't Met You Yet,' by Michael Bublè," he said. He took a deep breath, plastered on his best performance face, and began.

_I'm not surprised, not everything lasts_

_I've broken my heart so many times, I stopped keeping track_

_Talk myself in, I talk myself out_

_I get all worked up, then I let myself down_

Blaine started working his way around the room, his eyes lingering on Xander as he sung the words "I've broken my heart." He moved away from Xander and continued,

_I tried so very hard not to lose it_

_I came up with a million excuses_

_I thought, I thought of every possibility_

_And I know someday that it'll all turn out_

_You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out_

_And I promise you, kid, that I give so much more than I get_

_I just haven't met you yet_

Blaine snuck a quick look at the council, and saw that all three boys were grooving their heads to Blaine's soulful croon.

_I might have to wait, I'll never give up_

_I guess it's half timing, and the other half's luck_

_Wherever you are, whenever it's right_

_You'll come out of nowhere and into my life_

_And I know that we can be so amazing_

_And, baby, your love is gonna change me_

_And now I can see every possibility_

_And somehow I know that it'll all turn out_

_You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out_

_And I promise you, kid, I give so much more than I get_

_I just haven't met you yet_

_They say all's fair_

_In love and war_

_But I won't need to fight it_

_We'll get it right and we'll be united_

_And I know that we can be so amazing_

_And being in your life is gonna change me_

_And now I can see every single possibility_

_And someday I know it'll all turn out_

_And I'll work to work it out_

_Promise you, kid, I'll give more than I get_

_Than I get, than I get, than I get_

_Oh, you know it'll all turn out_

_And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out_

_And I promise you kid to give so much more than I get_

_Yeah, I just haven't met you yet_

_I just haven't met you yet_

_Oh, promise you, kid_

_To give so much more than I get_

_I said love, love, love, love_

_Love, love, love, love_

_(I just haven't met you yet)_

_Love, love, love, love_

_Love, love_

_I just haven't met you yet_

As the song drew to a close, Blaine came back to the center, took a quick bow, and said "Thank you very much." While he made his way back to his seat, he couldn't help but sneak a glance over across the room. Blaine noticed that Xander looked rather uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but think to himself, 'yeah I definitely nailed that!' Blaine didn't even hear the other two boys audition, although he did catch that their names were Josh and Trent.

"Thank you very much, gentlemen. The council will deliberate on your auditions, and we will have a decision within a week," Wes explained to Blaine, Josh, and Trent. "This concludes our first meeting," Wes finally said, and with a snap of his gavel, the Warblers began to disperse.

Blaine stepped off of the couch, and made a bee-line for the door, trying to avert any attention from Xander, or any of the other guys. He went to the headmaster's office to get his room assignment, and found out that his roommate transferred at the last minute, so he had the full room to himself. As he began to unpack all of his belongings and get settled in, he couldn't help but muse to himself, 'There is a lot in store for Blaine Anderson this year.'


	3. Induction

It had been a very long first week for Blaine Anderson. His first day flew by in a whirlwind, what with the stress of Warbler auditions and moving in, not to mention still not having really dealt with what had happened with Xander. He just really didn't want to think about that at all. Fairly soon, however, Blaine settled in to the Dalton routine. He went to class every day, nonchalantly chatted with his friends, and did his homework. Junior year was turning out to be exactly how his parents had explained to him. It was so incredibly difficult. He was bogged down with homework every single night, and it was the first week! Blaine was not the type to focus on the negative aspects of his life. He felt good knowing that he killed his audition song, but that did not make the waiting for the results any less nerve-wracking. So he put the Warblers to the back of his mind, and continued to adjust to life as a junior at Dalton.

Blaine was sitting in his room on Monday evening doing his US History homework when he heard a rap on his door. As he made to go open it, a letter was slid under the door sill. He was a little bit confused. Was he in trouble? Did he forget to turn something in to one of his teachers? As he examined the envelope, he noticed that it bore the Dalton Crest in the upper right hand corner. In the upper left hand corner, he spotted a small yellow canary imprinted. Blaine took another inquisitive look at the envelope, which had his name inscribed on it, and finally decided to open it. He pulled the letter out of the envelope, took a deep breath, and began to read,

_Dear Blaine Anderson,_

_The Warblers request your attendance at an emergency meeting, to be held in the senior commons, on the seventeenth day of September, two-thousand and ten. The meeting starts promptly at 7:00 pm, so it would do to not be late. We_

_eagerly await and anticipate your attendance. _

_Sincerely,_

_The Warblers Council_

Seeing as how it was only Monday, Blaine had the next four days to worry and obsess over what this meeting could be about. He could not just sit around and wonder what was going to happen at this meeting. So Blaine did the only thing that he thought might give him an answer.

He sent Wes a text;

_To Wes: So what exactly is this little letter supposed to mean anyway? It's been _

_three days, and not a single word from you or David regarding how my audition _

_went. _

Wes' response was even more cryptic than the letter he had just received;

_To Blaine: All in good time my friend. Just come to the meeting on Friday_

_night. All will be revealed promptly at 7:00 PM._

'Well that got me absolutely nowhere,' Blaine thought to himself. He pondered texting Wes back, but he knew it would do no good. From the limited amount of time he knew Wes, Blaine had already learned that Wes was very big on upholding traditions, whether it be school related, or not. He also knew that Wes was the king of being cryptic. 'Great,' Blaine thought to himself. Now all he could do was wait until Friday and go to that meeting.

As the days of the week stretched out into what seemed like months, Blaine grew more and more anxious. It did not help that every time he spotted David or Wes in the hallway, they tried with all of their might to avert his gaze and continue on, which only served to concern Blaine even more. It was Thursday afternoon, when he spotted Trent, one of the other guys who auditioned for the Warblers, on the way to Algebra 2 class. 'If those two are going to be so secretive about this, then I'm going to ask someone in my same situation. Maybe I'll actually get some answers,' he rationalized.

"Hey, Trent!" Blaine shouted over the din of students bustling through the grandiose hallways.

"Hey, Blaine. How's the week treating you?" Trent asked, seemingly puzzled as to why Blaine would be talking to him. Trent was a little bit taller than Blaine, about average build, with chocolate brown hair and eyes.

"Things are going pretty well, considering I'm about to have an anxiety attack!" Blaine explained dramatically. "Did you get a letter from the Warblers on Monday, telling you to go to a meeting tomorrow night at 7:00?" Blaine probed, trying his best to sound casual.

"Yeah! I did, and it has been driving me crazy because I haven't heard anything at all regarding my audition," Trent answered exasperatedly.

That did well to quell Blaine's nerves a little bit. At least he was not the only one being forced to wait out the results and work himself into a frenzy over the potential outcomes. "Oh, thank god! I thought I was the only one freaking out over here," Blaine said.

Trent just smiled and said, "Nope, definitely not the only one. I asked Josh, and he said that he didn't get a letter. I just wish this week would finally end, so I can know one way or another if I'm in or not! But hey, I've got to get to class, don't want to upset Ms. Halloway. I'll see you on Friday, Blaine." With that, Trent spun around on his feet and sped off in the other direction towards the English hall. Blaine couldn't help but notice that Trent walked with a rhythm.

"See you later, Trent," Blaine said as he turned and walked towards his math class. Now that he knew that he was not the only one being kept in the dark, he seemed to relax a little bit. Also, the knowledge that Josh did not get a letter made Blaine feel even better. He thought that maybe now was the time to get his hopes the time Friday came around, Blaine could not have been happier. The meeting, and the Warblers was all he could think about. He even went as far as to imagine himself as being the lead Warbler, having all of the solos, and commanding the attention of everyone in the audiences he performed in front of. Nothing could bring Blaine down from the high of confidence he was riding. The rest of the day flew by in a flurry, and before Blaine knew it, the time had come for him to leave for the Warblers meeting. There were a few nerves, but Blaine tried not to let them in.

At ten minutes to 7:00, Blaine was making his way to the senior commons when he ran into Trent again. "Trent, hey!" he shouted, trying to get Trent's attention.

"Hi Blaine!" Trent responded upon seeing Blaine. "I am all of a sudden very nervous," he admitted. "What if they tell me that I didn't make it, in front of the whole of the Warblers? I don't think I could handle humiliation like that," he added.

"I'm nervous too, don't worry about it," Blaine said calmly. They both walked in silence until they got to the large oak, French doors. They took a look at each other, and Blaine asked "Are you ready for this?" Trent simply gave him a nod in response, and they each opened a door.

When they walked into the commons, it was pitch black, and neither Blaine nor Trent could see anything. "So it's exactly 7:00 PM now, where is everybody?" Blaine asked.

"We are all here, Blaine. Glad you could make it. Hello to you as well, Trent. Good to see you," a voice said out of the infinite darkness. It took Blaine a few seconds before he recognized the voice, and at the same instant, the lights flickered on to reveal all of the Warblers standing before Blaine and Trent. Wes, David and Thad stood at the forefront of the congregation of boys. "Welcome to the induction ceremony for our two newest Warblers, Blaine Zachary Anderson, and Trent Andrew Jacobson," Wes addressed the Warblers, but Trent and Blaine specifically. "Congratulations to both of you for putting out superb auditions. We look forward to working with, and performing with the both of you as part of our team," he added. "And now that the pleasantries have been dispensed, let us get on with this ceremony," Wes concluded. "LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!" he shouted as music began blaring.

Blaine was beyond ecstatic. He almost thought he was dreaming, but then he had every single member of the Warblers coming up to him and congratulating him. He even had a couple of guys saying that he had a shot at singing some solos, which only elated him even more. He caught a quick glimpse of Xander, who seemed to be trying to avoid Blaine altogether. He did find it odd though, that Xander was paying a lot of attention towards Trent. He tried not to think anything of it. He was not going to let Xander's poor attempts at flirting ruin his amazing evening. He grabbed a soda and began mingling with the other Warblers.

The evening could not have gone any better. Blaine was now officially a Dalton Academy Warbler, and Trent had made it too. Not only was he a Warbler, but he actually had the potential to have some solos. On the way back to his dorm room, he realized that in the mix of the whole ceremony and the party, he left his book bag in the senior commons. As Blaine made to open the doors, he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight he was witnessing. He saw two boys having a full on make-out session against a row of lockers. Blaine jerked his head away, trying not to take a second look, but he couldn't help but crane his head back around to look. When he looked again, he was able to get a look at one of the guys. It was Trent. 'So Trent bats for Team Gay, apparently,' Blaine thought. What he saw next hit him like a ton of bricks. Trent was making out with Xander. The next second, Blaine found himself practically falling into the door, effectively snapping Xander and Trent out of their clandestine tryst. "Oh, sorry. I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I…I forgot my bag," he managed to stammer out. Blaine made to run out, before Xander stopped him.

"Blaine, this isn't what you think," Xander said. He didn't have any look of remorse on his face, and his plea sounded anything but apologetic.

"Really, Xander? Because to me, it looks like you're making out with the other new Warbler. Or maybe I'm just imagining things. Did he just fall onto your lips?" Blaine asked, anger rising in his voice. He stole a look at Trent, who truly did look like he was sorry for betraying Blaine like that. "I thought you were trying to move on, Xander, and that you still wanted to be friends," Blaine was practically shouting.

Xander looked at Blaine, dumbfounded. He stated matter-of-factly, "Blaine, you actually believed that text message? What we 'had' was just fun. It was nothing serious. I just wanted to have a good time, and I thought you were cute."

"Are you kidding me?" Blaine questioned, shock and horror written all over his face. "I GAVE YOU MY VIRGINITY! AND YOU THOUGHT WE WERE JUST HAVING 'FUN'?" At this point, he was screaming, not caring who heard him. He had bottled how he was really feeling for the whole week. Now that he knew that he meant almost nothing to Xander, his true feelings were coming out in waves. "You disgust me, Xander. Do me a favor, do not ever talk to me again unless it has something to do with the Warblers," Blaine said dejectedly. All the while, he was not making eye contact with Trent. He was not mad at Trent, he was just upset that he had to be dragged into all of this drama between him and Xander. As he made for the door, he turned around and looked Xander straight in the eye as he said "I feel sorry for you, Xander. You toy with guys' emotions because you think you're having fun? You must be a very insecure person to be so detached like that." He slammed the door and ran for his dorm room.

It was not until Blaine was in his room when he realized that he was not alone. He heard the door close behind him and jumped. "Oh my god, Trent, you scared me. I thought you were Xander," Blaine said, sadness etched all over his voice. He saw that Trent had a look of deep sorrow and regret on his face.

"I honestly don't even know how it happened," Trent began. "One minute we were talking after the party. The next, he had me pinned up against the fireplace, and he was trying to stick his tongue down my throat," he said with disgust. "Blaine, I am so unbelievably sorry. I had no idea what you and Xander had been through. Had I had the slightest idea, I would have pushed him away immediately," Trent explained.

Blaine looked him dead in the eye and said, "I'm not mad at you, Trent. I'm just mad at the fact that jerk out there would just stomp all over my feelings like that. I'm sorry that you had to bear witness to that. It just made me realize that whatever I felt for him was not real love, and I clearly meant nothing to him."

"It's not your fault, Blaine," Trent stated firmly. "Do not think that for an instant. Guys like him are always going to be around. It's your job to not settle for anything less than your idea of perfection." With that statement, Trent leaned in and gave Blaine a hug. "You don't need to talk to him, just avoid him during Warblers rehearsal and pretend he isn't there. I know it hurts right now, but it will get better and you will move on from this," he continued.

Blaine began to cry for the second time in less than two weeks. "It does hurt, Trent. It hurts more than I can bear. And I didn't even really LOVE him, which is even worse. How can I be this shook up about someone I merely had an intense crush on?" he sobbed into Trent's shoulder. He only knew Trent for a week, and he was already proving to be a steadfast friend. Definitely worth having around at Dalton, when he was still relatively new. Blaine steadied his sobs and managed to say "Thank you for being here, Trent. You're a really nice guy."

"Of course, that's what friends are for right? I'll leave you alone, you probably need to sleep and mull some things over. I'm at the end of the hall if you need anything," Trent said as he closed the door and headed down to his dorm.

"What a great way to end this evening," Blaine said sarcastically to no one. He turned out his lights, changed out of his uniform, and went to sleep.


	4. Revelation and Rejuvination

**A/N: Sorry about the lateness of my update! I just recently got back into school, and am still trying to get the swing of things. But here is Chapter 3 in the life of Blaine Warbler Anderson! As always, Glee, Blaine, Kurt, and anything thereof are not mine...sadly. **

'Why does everything always have to happen to me?' Blaine queried in his mind. He was picked on and beaten almost into unconsciousness last year, and now this? Too much had gone on, both positive and negative. The only thing that stood out in his mind though was the fact that his ex, whatever Xander was, was making out with some other guy right in front of him. He tried to resist screaming in anger, but it came out of nowhere. He needed to get away. He needed to leave Dalton for the weekend. He packed an overnight bag, hopped into his Jetta, and sped out of the campus parking lot. He turned his iPod on full blast to try and take his mind off of things. "Teenage Dream" shuffled in, and Blaine immediately moved to change the song. "I really don't need anything reminding me of love, or romance right now!" he shouted. He searched through is artists until finally finding some calming, mellow music. "That's much better," he said. "Nothing like a little British  
>emo music to take my mind off of everything." As he was driving, a certain song came on that caught Blaine's attention. He had not heard it in a while, but began singing along with the song as it begun.<p>

_Swept away_  
><em>By the wonder of it all<em>  
><em>So amazed<em>  
><em>Never saw it coming<em>  
><em>Left me dazed<em>  
><em>And i don't know where to turn<em>

_Here and now_  
><em>Seems I'm standing on the edge<em>  
><em>Looking down<em>  
><em>I can clearly see your face<em>  
><em>In the crowd<em>  
><em>Makes me feel I'm not alone<em>

_If I fall_  
><em>Will you catch me?<em>

_Seems to me_  
><em>I'm exactly where I dreamt<em>  
><em>I would be<em>  
><em>And the view from here is<em>  
><em>Something to see<em>  
><em>But I need a hand to hold on to<em>

_If I fall_  
><em>Will you catch me?<em>

The lyrics could not have rung more true for Blaine and everything he had gone through in the past six months. Dalton Academy was his haven when public school failed to be beneficial to him anymore. Wes and David picked him up and took him under their wings when he was utterly alone at school. He never had that feeling at his old school. All he had every single day were catcalls of "FAG," and "HOMO," and culminated with he and his best friend getting the crap kicked out of them. At that moment in his life, Blaine had almost wondered if it was worth it coming out, if all he would receive was heartbreak and pain. Coming to Dalton made him realize that, yes, being true and honest with yourself was worth it. "Even if you have to see the guy who ripped your heart out because he wanted to have a little 'fun,'" Blaine spoke out loud. He was thankful when he saw signs for Lima starting to pop up on the freeway. By the time he pulled into his parents' driveway, it was after 11:00 in the evening. He got out of his car, snuck into his house and up to his room as quietly as possible, and put his stuff down on the floor. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

At around 11:30 the next morning, Blaine felt something nudging him, but was still half asleep. "Blaine, darling? When did you get in?"

"Five more minutes, mom," Blaine said, not wanting to budge.

"BLAINE!" his mom shouted, at which point, Blaine bolted upright, fully awake.

Blaine took in his surroundings blearily, finally realizing where he was. "Oh, hey mom. I got in last night. I just needed to get away from Dalton for the weekend. Don't worry, I drove safely, and within the speed limits," he added hastily at the end.

His mom surveyed him, almost as if she knew something was wrong with him. "Is everything ok, Blaine? You normally do not just leave after the first week of class," she said to him, worry evident in her tone.

Blaine had an exasperated look on his face as he answered, "Yes, mom. Everything is fine as far as school is concerned. I'm just dealing with a personal issue that I would rather not worry you and father with."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it, son? If something is bothering you, you should talk to me about it. You know I am always hear for you," she said to him with genuine concern.

"Mom, honestly, everything is fine. If it is still bothering me later, I will come to you and tell you all about it," Blaine responded, matter-of-factly. He really did not want to discuss the fact that he had lost his virginity to a guy while he was at school, let alone the fact that he caught said guy making out with another. "I did not mean to snap at you, mom. I'm sorry. I just need a little bit of alone time right now. Can we talk later tonight?" Blaine queried.

"Of course we can, honey. Whenever you're ready, just let me know. Your father and I are going out for the day, and will be back later this evening, so just call me," his mother explained to him.

Blaine looked at his mom and smiled as he said, "Alright mom, I'll call you later. Have fun today!"

He decided that he was going to get out for the day. He did not want to deal with his mom berating him about what was wrong. She could sense that something was bothering Blaine, but he was not about to tell her about what happened with Xander. There were not very many places to go in Lima. It was either to the mall, or to Breadstix, so Blaine jumped into his car and headed towards downtown Lima to the mall. He was sifting through CDs when he heard his phone ring. He saw  
>the name on the caller ID and answered the call instantly.<p>

"Hey David, how are you?" Blaine asked, trying to sound cool and collected, as if nothing was bothering him.

"I'm doing alright. I could ask you the same thing. Where the hell are you? You left the party and I didn't see you the rest of the night," David explained.

"I went home for the weekend. Something happened after the party, and I just had to leave. I will be back on Sunday evening, so don't worry. I won't miss Warblers rehearsal," Blaine said quickly. "David, I'll talk to you later, I need some alone time," he exclaimed before ending the phone call.

As he strolled through the parking lot towards the mall entrance, he realized that he didn't really have any idea what he would do all day there. He did not particularly enjoy shopping, partly because he really didn't need that many items of clothing. The rows of uniforms in his dormitory provided enough wardrobe for him. Just as he was about to walk into the mall, Blaine caught a glimpse of a group of teenagers about his age. One girl was tall and blonde, the other was  
>brunette and appeared to be of Hispanic descent. Both were wearing red and white cheerleading outfits, which Blaine found somewhat peculiar.<br>However, it was the boy who caught Blaine's attention. He looked to be about 5'10", had brown hair that was perfectly styled, a red and black  
>checked shirt, a pair of skin-tight dark blue jeans, and some black knee-high combat boots. Blaine could not really hear them talking, but it was obvious from his gestures, and the way that the boy walked, that he was gay. He continued to look at the group until they disappeared into the din of the many shops and restaurants.<p>

Seeing as how Blaine really had no need to shop for clothes, he went in search of the Barnes & Noble in the mall. He thought that reading a book with a cup of coffee would take his mind off of everything that had happened in the past week. The mall was exponentially crowded with parents and little children doing their last minute back-to-school shopping, so it took him a little bit of time to maneuver between all of the strollers and screaming children. After about ten minutes of pushing his way through people, he saw the gleaming white block letters that designated his destination, and he sauntered in. He had all the time in the world, seeing as how it was Saturday. Blaine began to peruse through the bookstore, until he found exactly the book he was looking for. "Aha! I've been meaning to pick this up for a while!" he exclaimed as he casually flipped through a copy of Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray. He had only read it once, and found it fascinating. He made a beeline for the cash register, casually dropped his credit card, and proceeded to sit inside the café that seemed to be present in every single Barnes & Noble. Blaine cracked the spine of the book open, and immersed himself in the beautiful words of Oscar Wilde.

It was around 5:00 in the evening when Blaine realized just how much time he had spent simply reading in a bookstore. He shot up from his table chair, and sprinted for the exit towards the parking lot he parked in. As he was getting into his car, he noticed that the same group of teenagers he saw when he came into the mall were leaving. Blaine was able to steal one last look at the boy, and could not help but notice just how beautiful he was. He had almost completely forgotten about everything that had gone on, and the fact that he still needed to talk with his mother about all of it. When he got home, he walked into his room to find his mom sitting on his bed, with a plate of dinner ready for him. She glanced up and saw him, and then said "Hello, darling! We got home a little earlier than expected, so I took the liberty of making you dinner. Where did you go today, honey?" She inquired of her son, seeing as how he held nothing except a book in his hands.

"Oh, I decided to go to the bookstore in the mall. I found the book I've been wanting to buy for a while. A pity that this was Wilde's only novel. It is beautifully written," Blaine explained animatedly. While he was eating his food, he could feel his mother's gaze on him, almost as if prompting him to speak about what he wanted to say. "Mom, I need you to promise me that what I am about to talk with you about does not leave this room. You know how father does not approve or wish to hear of anything regarding my identity," he spoke to her, barely above a whisper.

His mother stared intently into his hazel eyes as she said, "You have my word, son. Now please tell me, what is going on with you? Has someone hurt you, again?" she questioned.

"Oh my god, no. This is not a repeat of last year. Besides, you know that Dalton has a no-bullying policy. It's about a guy, mom," he said, trying to calm her down. "This guy Xander, whom I started dating towards the end of term, decided that he does not want to see me anymore. In his words, '_I just thought you were cute, and we were having fun.'_" Blaine continued to disclose to her.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to hear that someone hurt you like that," his mom spoke with an air of sympathy.

Blaine took a deep breath, and continued to speak, "There's more, mom. What I'm about to tell you is very uncomfortable for me to say, so please reserve any judgment you might initially have, and just be there for me, please?" he was almost begging.

She did not waver in her gaze, "I would never judge you, not ever. Tell me what happened."

"I lost my virginity to him, mom. I feel so disgusting, losing something so sacred to someone whom I did not mean anything to," Blaine managed to get out before he broke down and started to cry into his mother's arms. "I can't believe I gave myself away to someone like that so easily," he said in between sobs.

As he tried to collect himself, his mom lifted his head up and said directly into his face, "Blaine, this boy, whoever he is, means nothing to you in your life anymore. What happened to you happened. I know it is going to be hard, but you have got to try and move on from this. You are going to find someone to whom you mean the entire world, and he will treat you exactly like that. Until then, you just need to concentrate on yourself. I saw your Warbler rehearsal schedule sticking out of your bag, so just channel your energy into that," she finished. Blaine had slowed his sobs, but his face was still red and puffy.

"Mom, Xander is in the Warblers with me," Blaine stated despondently. "I don't know how I'm supposed to be in the same room with him without getting upset every time," he admitted.

"This will be easier said than done, but just try and ignore him, sweetheart. He does not exist in your world anymore. He is simply another body in the room," his mother said. "Thank you for confiding something so personal like this to me, Blaine. It really means a lot to me that you trust me with this. I'll let you finish eating, shower and get some rest. Let me know if you need anything," she said as she turned to walk out of Blaine's bedroom.

"Mom, I love you so much," Blaine said as he embraced his mom in a vice-grip of a hug.

"I love you, too, darling. Finish eating and get some sleep," she stated as she closed the door and left Blaine alone.

Blaine heaved a sigh of relief, feeling loads better after explaining everything that had gone on to his mom. He finished his food, and then pulled out his phone to shoot a quick text:

To: Wes and David

"I will be coming back to campus in the morning. Do you guys wanna meet up to discuss some potential songs? I am also considering auditioning for the solo spot, is there anything I should know?"

-B-

He pressed the send button, and received a response from Wes less than a minute later

To: Blaine

"Sounds awesome! I'm definitely up to meeting up with you tomorrow. How about noon? Just to let you know, Senior member Xander Barrows will also be auditioning for the solo spot."

-W-

Blaine saw the name, and simply thought to himself, 'this should be good.'


	5. Retaliation and Adoration

**A/N: All I can offer is my sincerest apologies again for the delay in this update. School has sort of taken over my life at the moment. But once winter break comes, I will be able to update more frequently. Until then, here is the next installment in the Year in the Life of Blaine Warbler Anderson. Please read and review, your feedback really helps me. **

The idea that Blaine had to not only see his jerk of an ex again, but also audition against him for a solo was pushed to the back of Blaine's mind for the time being. It was due mainly in part to the conversation he had with his mom the previous night. He knew that she loved him unconditionally, but their exchange the night before had opened up something new for him. The two of them were not granted many opportunities to speak so candidly with each other. Blaine was constantly bogged down with school work, and would be even more so now with the Warblers, while his mom was almost always in the company of his father. That mere fact alone was enough to push Blaine miles away, literally as well as metaphorically. Despite these extenuating circumstances fighting to pull Blaine and his mom away from each other, there was no doubt in Blaine's mind that his mom loved him to the ends of the earth. He now knew that not only did she love and cherish him, but she also supported him with every fiber of her being. Tears began to materialize in his eyes as he sat himself up in bed. The insatiable scent of bacon wafted into his room, and Blaine immediately knew that his mom was downstairs, no doubt concocting a masterpiece of a breakfast. He changed into some jeans and a polo shirt, and followed the smells that were extending from the kitchen.

His mom spotted him as soon as he walked in, and sent a warm smile his way that could have melted the polar ice caps. Blaine made his way over to the fridge, poured himself a glass of orange juice, and pulled up a chair at the bar so he could watch his mother cook. The silence they were experiencing did not feel awkward in the slightest. It was something that was easy and comfortable. Blaine finally decided to break the silence and speak up, saying "everything smells wonderful mom!" he beamed at her as he said those words.

Katrina Anderson turned around from the stove, smiled and answered, "thank you darling. Everything should be ready in just a few more minutes." She went back to her cooking, and could not help but notice how much happier Blaine had seemed after they had talked. It was wonderful for her to know that her son felt comfortable enough to share with her something so private, and be so open about it. She began to pile the spread of food onto the table when her husband walked into the kitchen with a stern look on his face. He did not even acknowledge Blaine's presence in the room. Blaine was starting to approach a breaking point with his father. He knew that their relationship was strained, and he was not even sure that he wanted it to improve. He just wanted to say how he truly felt to his father.

Ever since Blaine had come out to his parents at the age of fifteen, he and his father barely spoke two words to each other that weren't civil pleasantries. Neither of them bothered to share anything private with the other. It was almost as if James Anderson was more of an authority figure to Blaine than a father figure. Blaine chose to do this because he knew that his father would not care one way or the other. His father chose this because he believed that sharing your private thoughts was a sign of weakness, and men were not supposed to appear weak. Blaine simply wanted some sort of closure, to get all of his frustrations out and see where the two of them stood. It was not going to happen that weekend, but he knew that things were bound to come to a head in the near future. He nodded at his father and said, "good morning, father." It was all he was able to muster. He knew that if he tried to say anything more, things would come pouring out of his mouth that he did not necessarily mean.

"Morning, Blaine. I take it you will be heading back to Westerville sometime today? It is only the third week of school, and here you are, already gallivanting around, and losing focus on your schoolwork." Blaine shrugged his shoulders at the stern tone coming from his father. He could not expect anything less, though. His father spoke with nothing more than moderate disdain when it came to Blaine. Sometimes Blaine had to wonder if his dad even thought of him as his son.

'Not here, not now, Blaine,' he thought to himself. He had just made leaps and bounds in improving his relationship with his mom, and he did not want to burn that bridge before the foundations had been solidified. Instead, Blaine kept his eyes on his food and replied, "Yes father. I have rehearsal with the Warblers this evening. I'm leaving after breakfast." On the outside, Blaine presented the calm, collected, dapper gentleman that Dalton Academy had reared him to be. On the inside, however, he was seething. He wanted so much to scream out just how angry and hurt he had been by his father's non-acceptance of him. It truly did eat away at him, but he knew that now was not the time to start a blow-out argument.

"Very good, then. You would do best to make us proud," his father stated gruffly. The meal was finished in silence. Blaine could feel the tension building in the air, and decided to use this as his opportunity to leave. His anger and frustrations with his father were beginning to bubble over, and Blaine could sense an explosion coming if he did not leave soon. Blaine shoveled some food onto his plate, and began to eat in a furious rage. He shot a pleading glance over to his mom, and without any words, he knew that she was able to understand the meaning of it. Blaine wished so much for her to talk to his father before he did. The rest of the meal passed in silence. Blaine did not concentrate on anything else except the plate in front of him, and all of the thoughts swimming around in his head. 'First Xander, now my father?' It was all too much to deal with. The weekend away was supposed to be time for Blaine to recuperate from the whirlwind of happenings during the first week of school. And now he now suddenly felt like he needed to be back at Dalton.

He stalked up the stairs and gathered the rest of his things, and it was a little after noon when Blaine was ready to make the two hour journey back to Westerville. His mom walked into his room and addressed him, "It was so wonderful to have you home this weekend, Blaine. Don't worry honey, I'll try and talk to your father. I do think you should eventually talk with him at some point. He only wants what is best for you, darling." He moved to give her one last big hug, before she began the walk with him downstairs, and to the front door. His father had not even made an attempt at any sort of goodbye. He simply moved from the kitchen table to his office, where he was now holed up, with the doors shut and locked. "I love you, Blaine. Drive safely, and call me as soon as you get back to Dalton Academy," his mom spoke with a soft tone in her voice.

Blaine felt a vibration coming from his pocket, knowing that he had just received a text message, but he chose to ignore it, instead, focusing solely on his mom. "I love you too, mom. Thank you so much for everything this weekend. I'll call you the second I set foot back on the grounds," Blaine responded jovially. After what felt like several minutes, Blaine finally pulled away and got into his car. He finally decided to pull out his phone and saw that he had two texts, one from Thad, the other council member, and one from a number he did not recognize:

**From: Thad**

** "Rehearsal starts promptly at 3:00 PM. We will be preparing a preliminary set-list for Sectionals, as well as auditioning potential soloists." –T-**

Blaine already had a song in the back of his mind that he had planned on using. He typed out a quick response, saying:

**From: Blaine**

** "Thank you, Thad. I will be there at 3:00, and I have an audition piece prepared. I hope that is ok." –B-**

He did not receive an additional response, but that did not make him at all nervous. He proceeded to read the next text message, which was not nearly as friendly, and came from the number that Blaine did not recognize:

**From: (614) 212-9851**

** "You're going down, Anderson. Prepare to be vocally crushed."**

As soon as Blaine saw the message, he knew immediately who it was from. It was so like Xander to try and intimidate his competition. However, Blaine did not let this ominous threat cloud his thoughts and incite even more nerves inside of him. He simply turned his iPod on, and let the sounds of Maroon 5 and Katy Perry wash over him, and consume him on his drive back to Dalton.

It was about 2:30 by the time Blaine had arrived at the gates to Dalton Academy for Boys. Although the gates had an ominous look about them, Blaine knew that inside, it was a very welcoming, and enjoyable place to be. He knew that he did not want to be anywhere else. He shut off the smooth sounds of "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry, and quickly sent a text off to his mom:

**To: Katrina Anderson (mom)**

** "Back at Dalton. I have rehearsal and my audition today at 3:00. Wish me **

** luck, and I will text you once I finish." –B-**

He dropped his bag off in his dorm room, picked up his guitar out of his closet, and proceeded towards the senior commons where he saw other Warblers, including his new friend Trent heading in the same direction. Blaine stopped Trent and said, "Hey man, how was your weekend? Are you going to audition for a solo?" He queried.

Trent gave him a look of trepidation before answering, "My weekend was good. I just stuck around here and tried to get some work done. I don't think I'm going to audition for this one. I just got into the group, and I don't think I'm comfortable enough to put myself out there this early on." He shrugged his shoulders and continued to walk towards the commons beside Blaine. As they filed through the double doors into the senior commons, Blaine caught a quick glimpse of Xander across the room, but averted his eyes almost as swiftly as they had seen him. He did not want to let Xander into his head at all, so he simply avoided him at all costs. At that moment, Wes, David and Thad rose from the multitude of Warblers to take their places at the council tables.

"This meeting of the Warblers has been called to order," Wes announced over the din of sound, which immediately quieted when he spoke.

Thad took over from there, stating "on the agenda for today, we begin with auditions for the solo spot at Sectionals, which will lead us into preliminary discussions about our set-list for said competition." He sat down at the same time that David rose from his chair.

"We first have senior member Xander Scott, one of two Warblers auditioning for the lead soloist position," David declared to the group. "Senior member Scott, the floor is yours," David said as he sat back down in his chair, prepared to listen intently.

Xander stood up from where he was seated, with a small cassette player in hand. Good afternoon, Warblers, my name is Xander Scott, and I will be singing "Crooked Teeth," by Death Cab For Cutie.

'He can't even play an instrument, or sing it straight a capella. What did I ever see in him?' Blaine thought to himself as he heard the electric guitar chords, signaling the start of the song.

_It was one hundred degrees, as we sat beneath a willow tree,  
>Who's tears didn't care, they just hung in the air, and refused to fall, to fall.<em>

_And I knew I'd made horrible call,_  
><em>And now the state line felt like the Berlin wall,<em>  
><em>And there was no doubt about which side I was on.<em>

_Cause I built you a home in my heart,_  
><em>With rotten wood, it decayed from the start.<em>

Blaine's ears perked up at that particular line. He did not know if Xander had intended this song to hurt Blaine. It did not even so much hurt, as much as it rang true for his current situation, and clearly illustrated Xander's true motives for his time with Blaine. 

_Cause you can't find nothing at all,_  
><em>If there was nothing there all along.<em>  
><em>No you can't find nothing at all,<em>  
><em>If there was nothing there all along.<em>

_I braved treacherous streets,_  
><em>And kids strung out on homemade speed.<em>  
><em>And we shared a bed in which I could not sleep,<em>  
><em>At all, woo, hoo, woo, hooOoOo.<em>

He could not deny, Xander had a great voice. There was a reason he was in the Warblers for the past three years of his high school career. However, Blaine noticed something that he was sure did not go unnoticed with the other Warblers; there was no feeling in Xander's voice. The words he was singing were dripping with hidden meaning, but Blaine felt Xander was singing just for the sake of singing words. 

_Cause at night the sun in retreat,_  
><em>Made the skyline look like crooked teeth,<em>  
><em>In the mouth of a man who was devouring, us both.<em>

_You're so cute when you're slurring your speech,_  
><em>But they're closing the bar and they want us to leave.<em>

_And you can't find nothing at all,_  
><em>If there was nothing there all along.<em>  
><em>No you can't find nothing at all,<em>  
><em>If there was nothing there all along.<em>

_I'm a war, of head versus heart,_  
><em>And it's always this way.<em>  
><em>My head is weak, my heart always speaks,<em>  
><em>Before I know what it will say.<em>

_And you can't find nothing at all,_  
><em>If there was nothing there all along.<em>  
><em>There were churches, theme parks and malls,<em>  
><em>But there was nothing there all along.<em>

As the last chords of the song faded out, Xander stood in the middle of the floor, took his bow and said "thank you very much, Warblers. Council members."

"Thank you for that, Warbler Scott," Wes said. "Next, we have junior member Blaine Anderson. Warbler Blaine, the floor is yours," he added. Blaine could not help but notice that Wes addressed him as 'Warbler Blaine,' and not 'Warbler Anderson.' In his mind, it meant that Wes had at least in some way had more faith in Blaine than he did in Xander.

Hello, Warblers. My name is Blaine Anderson, and I will be singing Rooney's "When Did Your Heart Go Missing." Blaine announced as he stood up from the couch he was sitting on, guitar in hand. He began to strum the opening chords, and started to move in time with the beat of the song.

_Love don't come so easily  
>This doesn't have to end in tragedy<br>I have you and you have me  
>We're one in a million<br>Why can't you see?_

Blaine moved from the center of the room and weaved his way around, in and out of the group of boys who were strewn about the commons.

_I'm waiting, waiting for nothing_  
><em>You're leaving, leaving me hanging<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>I treat you like a princess<em>  
><em>But your life is just one big mess<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing, yeah?<em>

He looked directly at Xander at that last line, and gave him a wink, but letting sarcasm drip from every single word he was singing. At this point in the song, Trent, Nick and Jeff began to ooh and ahh from where they were sitting, giving some traditional Warbler flair to the song. This only allowed Blaine to lose himself even further into the lyrics, and his show smile grew even wider. 

_I meant every word I said_  
><em>I never was lying when we talked in bed<em>  
><em>I'm retracing every step in my head<em>  
><em>What did I miss back then?<em>  
><em>I was so, so misled<em>

Other Warblers had joined in with background vocals at this point, and Blaine could even hear a beat-boxer in the background, allowing Blaine to abandon his guitar, and move easier throughout the crowd in the room. 

_I'm waiting, waiting for nothing_  
><em>You're leaving, leaving me hanging<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>I treat you like a princess<em>  
><em>But your life is just one big mess<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>

_I don't understand_  
><em>How could you forget what we had,<em>  
><em>It's so wrong<em>

He made his way back to the center of the room, each and every one of the Warblers partaking in the song with the exception of Xander. Blaine shot one more look at him, which said 'who's going down now, huh?'

_I'm waiting, waiting for nothing_  
><em>You're leaving, leaving me hanging<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>I treat you like a princess<em>  
><em>But your life is just one big mess<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>  
><em>When did your heart go missing?<em>

_Yeah!_

Blaine finished his song, only to find himself being clapped on the back, and thunderous applause erupting throughout the entire room. "Thank you very much, Warbler Blaine, for that thrilling audition," David shouted over the noise.

"Warblers, silence!" Wes yelled, while slamming his gavel down onto the table. "The council will deliberate on the two auditions, and we will have a decision within fifteen minutes," Wes added, gesturing for the other two council members to leave the room so they could have more privacy. Blaine finally took his original seat, with Jeff, Trent and Nick gamboling over to him, all with hoots of congratulations.

"Dude that was so amazing!" Nick exclaimed.

"You've got it in the bag!" Jeff said just as excitedly.

"I knew you would beat that jerk in a sing-off!" Trent said with a wink.

After fifteen minutes, which seemed like ages, the council members reassembled at their high table. "We have come to a decision," Thad began. "The Warbler we have chosen to lead us during Sectionals is going to be…"he paused.

"Junior Member Blaine Anderson!" all three of them chorused at the same time, which was met with more raucous applause and hollering from the other Warblers. All the while, Xander simply sat in the corner, eyes cast down on the floor, with his shoulders slumped over.

Blaine could not be concerned with that at the moment. He was too busy reveling in the fact that he was on top. His first time auditioning for a solo, and he got it. Things were definitely looking up for Blaine Zachary Anderson.


	6. Confrontation

**Author's Note: Once again, I can only apologize for the lateness of this update. It's slightly longer than my previous chapters, and the end of this chapter will see the story catch up with Season 2 canon. I hope you all enjoy. Please review!**

Blaine was still overwhelmed with the fact that he had landed the coveted solo spot as a first-year junior member of the Warblers. Wes told him after rehearsal that it was an amazing accomplishment, and that it had not happened since 1947. Suffice to say, Blaine was very pleased with himself. By the next week, he went from being relatively invisible at school, to being one of the more well-known guys walking down the halls. He was getting pats on the back and quick hugs in the corridors from guys he had not even seen milling around. It was really true what Wes and David had said when they first introduced themselves to Blaine; the Warblers really were rock-stars on campus. It felt really nice to be part of something, for lack of a better word, cool. At his old school, he was constantly berated, and maliciously teased for being involved in singing and theatre. He was not even fully out of the closet at the time, but fellow students just seemed to latch onto the idea that he was, without even taking the chance to get to know him. At one point, when things were beginning to become increasingly worse, Blaine had arrived at his locker to find 'FAG' untidily scrawled across it. This had been the catalyst to his realization that maybe public school was not the place for him. After the incident at the Sadie Hawkins Dance, Blaine knew for sure that he did not belong there. He had done research into Dalton Academy, specifically regarding their enforcement of the zero tolerance harassment policy. That was the clincher. He decided that he would eventually talk to his parents about enrolling him there for his junior year.

The rest of September passed rather quickly, seeing as how there was nothing noteworthy going on at Dalton during that time. October arrived, and Blaine found himself keeping his blazer buttoned up at all times, what with the frigid Ohio chill setting in for the duration of the year. Blaine had not even realized how quickly time was flying by, until Friday, when all of a sudden David pulled him aside and asked him, "so you're coming tomorrow night, right?" extreme enthusiasm apparent in his voice.

"Ummm, what's tomorrow night?" Blaine retorted, honestly having no idea what David could have been referring to.

David scoffed at him, a look of shock splattered across his face. It takes him a couple of seconds before he finally answers, "Blaine, it's Halloween on Sunday. The Warblers are hosting a party on Saturday evening. I can't believe that you really didn't know it was already almost November. Am I also correct in assuming that you forgot about Sectionals in a little over a month?"

At that sentence, Blaine froze. He had not meant to actually forget that he would be leading the rest of the group in competition in such a short time. It was just that everything else in his academic life was swarming over him all at once. He had a paper due in American Lit. that he had not even thought of starting yet, and he also had an Algebra test in a couple weeks that he was frantically trying to learn the material for. The Warblers had simply slipped his mind. However, he realized that it could become an issue, seeing as how he had not given any input to the Council regarding the Sectionals set-list. He snapped himself out of thought long enough to reply with a quick, "Yeah sure, David, I'll be there. I've got to go. I have a paper that I need to start writing." He quickly strode up the stairs to his room, barricaded the door, and threw himself onto his bed. He foraged through his bag for his copy of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail and the accompanying notes so he could begin writing the assigned essay. He brainstormed over topics for what seemed like hours, until finally settling onto writing about the infinite variety of nature, its ability to provide pleasure, and its link to God. Although Blaine was not the most religious of people, he clearly saw the connection that the playwright made between nature and God, and Blaine believed it would make for a very good essay.

Blaine could not help but begin to contemplate other facets of his life as he meticulously crafted an essay about Henry David Thoreau. As much as he hated to think about it, his thoughts immediately wandered to how dreadfully single he was, and how alone he truly felt. It was not that he hated being single, it was more that he just wanted a companion, someone who understood him, with whom he could bounce ideas off of, and connect with. In all honesty, all Blaine really wanted was another gay guy at school who was not a complete jerk like Xander. Sure, there were probably other gay guys on campus, but they were not in his same social circle, which basically consisted of the Warblers. He loved being a part of such a rock-star group, but he longed for another outlet. If Dalton had a gay-straight alliance, it would give him another opportunity to meet guys like himself, and other guys who were accepting of him. Unfortunately, such a luxury did not exist on campus at the time, so all Blaine had were his new Warbler friends, and his own company. While he mindlessly typed out an essay to a topic that was not particularly thrilling, Blaine could also not help thinking about his strained relationship with his father. It weighed heavily on his heart. He wanted so desperately to mend that relationship and create something new, but it took two people to make a relationship work, and his father was certainly not budging in how he felt about Blaine. He could still remember his coming out experience as if it was still a recent event.

* * *

><p><em>November 6th, 2009<em>

_Blaine had gotten home from school at about 3:45 after a full day of being harassed by the idiot jocks of Lima High School. As an underclassman, he expected some degree of torment, but not nearly as bad as he had experienced in the past year and a half. Sophomore year had brought on more challenging classes, more work, and even more difficult personal challenges. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he, Blaine Zachary Anderson was in fact, gay. That day, Blaine had resolved to come clean and come out to the people he felt closest to, including his family. No sooner had he told his closest friend in drama club, that the whole of Lima High School was made privy to this fact. Unbeknownst to him, his friend was hastily sending out a text message to her friend, whom in turn texted three of her friends, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the school. He exited the club meeting only to be met with glares of disgust from his peers. It was torture to simply endure the rest of the school day, even more so, knowing that he had to tell his mother and father when they saw him that very same evening._

_His mom was the first to arrive home, and Blaine was sitting at the kitchen table, working on his geometry homework. She took one glance at him and noticed something was immediately wrong. She put the bags of groceries away swiftly, and moved to sit down next to her son. As Katrina put her arm on Blaine's shoulder, he immediately broke down and began to cry._

_"Sweetie, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Talk to me, please," she begged of her son, while rubbing consoling circles on his back._

_"Mom, something happened at school today, something that has to do with what I am about to tell you," Blaine began cautiously. He looked down at his feet, hesitating for a little bit, and then said, "A terrible rumor was spread around school about me today. But it was not exactly a rumor."_

_His mom looked at him quizzically, and then said, "What did these people say about you, Blaine?"_

_Blaine began to lose his composure again as he continued to explain, "these people said that I'm gay mom. Only it isn't a rumor. It's actually true. I am gay. I just did not expect it to get around the school so fast." His mom immediately scooped Blaine up in a fierce hug and held him tightly. She was not upset, but she knew that this meant that her son was in for a world of pain. She just held him in her arms, waiting for him to calm down a little bit. When he finally started to slow his breathing, and his sobbing subsided, she looked into Blaine's eyes, and said, "It's ok, honey. I am not upset. I am just glad that you finally decided to tell me. I could tell that something had been bothering you lately."_

_The smallest of smiles crept onto his face at the understanding that his mom had given him. However, the smile soon dissipated when he realized what he still had to do. "Mom, can you stay with me when I tell dad tonight? I don't think I can face him alone," Blaine said, a bit of tremble still evident in his voice._

_She gave him a nod and answered, "Of course, darling. I'll be right beside you when you tell him. I can prep him if you'd like," she added, and then proceeded to start dinner. Blaine went up to his room to finish doing his homework, thankful for the privacy of having his own space to think about what was going to happen when he told his father about what had happened, and about who his son really was._

_By the time 6:00 rolled around, he heard the front door shut, signaling his fathers' arrival home. He shut his copy of Atlas Shrugged, which he had still not finished reading, and walked down the stairs. He greeted his father with a simple "Good evening," and proceeded to take a seat at the kitchen table._

_His father looked at him and said stoically, "Good evening, Blaine. Where is your mother?"_

_Blaine simply shrugged, and answered, "She's in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner." His nerves started to build, knowing that the moment he would have to tell his father that he was gay was growing closer and closer by the minute. He tried to steady his breathing, telling himself that it would be much better after he had gotten it out in the open. At that precise moment, his parents walked through the kitchen doors, carrying the evening's meal. "Mom, that looks absolutely amazing," Blaine said, trying to sound less nervous than he actually was._

_His father looked at him and stated, "Your mother has informed me that you have something you would like to share with me."_

_Blaine coughed into his water, not thinking that the talk was going to happen the second they all sat down to dinner. He started to tap his foot on the floor, trying to channel his nerves somewhere else. After a couple minutes, he took a deep breath, and began, "Dad, something happened at school today. I told something private to a friend of mine, and it spread around the entire school." He averted his eyes from his father's, not wanting to know what his father was thinking._

_"Well, what is it, Blaine? Is everything ok?" he asked, not even the least bit concerned._

_"Dad, I'm gay," Blaine rushed out in one swift breath, eyes still trained on his dinner plate. The silence in the room was deafening to Blaine, and he just wanted to get up and leave._

_His father sat in his chair, rigid as a board. "Blaine, look at me," he demanded of his son. When he saw that his son was looking at him, he continued, "Why on earth would you tell me that? Why the hell would you choose such a lifestyle?" his voice was completely monotone. His glare turned icy as he continued, "No son of mine will be a fag in this household."_

_Blaine only shook more in his seat. He tried to regain some of his confidence, but instead, his voice came out small and meek, "I didn't choose this dad, it's something I have been struggling with, and I did not even want this to get out, it just happened. Why are you so angry? This is who I am. I would have thought you would be more accepting of your own son." He looked at his mom, and she understood what he was trying to say without needing to speak any words._

_"Blaine, if you'd like, you may go up to your room, and your father and I will talk," she said to him tenderly. Blaine sprung up from his chair, placed his dish in the sink, and ran up the stairs. The moment he shut the door, he collapsed on his bed and started to cry. He knew that his father would take the news less than warmly, but Blaine did not expect him to call his only son such a cruel and hateful word._

_After what seemed like hours, his father burst through the door, a stack of papers in his hand, and said, "Your mother and I have officially enrolled you at the Dalton Academy for Boys in Westerville. You will be a boarding student, so you can practice your filthy lifestyle over there. If and when you decide to come home to visit, you will not speak of your choices in this household. You start on Monday. Goodnight." and with that, he slammed the door, leaving Blaine shocked and dumbfounded on his bed. The fact that his father had enrolled him at the very school he had done research into was a coincidence. He just had no idea that he would be enrolling so soon. He thought that he would have a little bit of time to get things together._

_His mother came in a few minutes later, with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. She sat next to him, wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and explained, "Blaine, I tried to talk to your father. He simply would not listen to reason. I am so sorry that he is forcing you into this so quickly. I'm sure you already know this, but the good news about your new school is that they have a zero tolerance harassment policy. So that means that if something like today happens to you at your new school, you can go straight to the headmaster and complain, and he will take care of the situation." She looked at him apologetically. She set the cup down and enveloped her son in another tight hug._

_"It's ok, mom," Blaine said with understanding. He had already done research into the academy, and was just waiting for the right time to talk to his mom about it._

* * *

><p>Blaine was shaken out of his reverie when he took a look at his alarm clock on his nightstand and noticed that it read well after 2:00 in the morning. He finally stowed his laptop, and turned in for the evening. Seeing as it was Saturday, he did not have classes or rehearsal to worry about. As he got himself ready for bed though, he started to have an idea about a song he wanted to do as an impromptu performance. He needed something to get him back on his game, and prepare the Warblers for their impending Sectionals competition against the New Directions and the Hipsters. He had just the perfect song in mind. While he brushed his teeth, the beginning guitar strums heralded in the sweet sounds of Ms. Katy Perry, and Blaine knew he had a winner of a song. It was perfect, and easy enough to arrange for an a capella choir. All he needed to do was get the Warbler's council on board, and it was a done deal.<p>

Saturday morning rolled around, and Blaine did not want to get up from bed. He knew that he had the halloween party to go to, and he still had nothing to wear. He perused through his closet, and after maybe a good forty or so minutes of grabbing clothes and throwing them around his room in haste, he finally saw the shirt he wore when he was 14 years old. An idea started to formulate in his mind. He decided to take the day to drive into downtown Westerville to search for the perfect pair of blue pants to complete his costume. Jeans would simply not do, because they would throw off the look he was trying to achieve. As he left Urban Outfitters with the perfect pair of royal blue Levi's slim fit jeans, he made his way over to Starbuck's when he caught sight of something that made him stop dead in his tracks. Xander was at the back of the line, waiting to order coffee. He had not spoken to Xander since their duel, which was a month and a half ago, and Blaine was finally almost to the point where he did not even waste a thought on him. However, in that moment, all of the history the two of them had came rushing back, and it completely ruined Blaine's day. 'Oh god, I hope he does not turn around and immediately see me,' Blaine thought to himself. Sure enough, as he made to open the door, Xander turned around, and immediately saw Blaine walking through the door.

"Well hello, Blaine Anderson," Xander said.

Blaine glowered in content, rather hoping not to speak to him at all. However, being the gentleman that he was, he curtly answered, "Hi Xander. Of all the Starbucks in all of Westerville, OH, you just HAD to be in this one." Blaine clipped his last word and rolled his eyes, obviously frustrated that he even had to talk to this guy.

Xander stifled a laugh as he said with a tone that was dripping with false sincerity, "well don't look too happy to see me, Blaine."

"Why the hell would I be happy to see you, Xander?" Blaine asked, spitting out Xander's name as if it were less than nothing. "You act like we are an item, you take my virginity, and then you throw it back in my face by making out with another guy? And I am supposed to be HAPPY to see you?" Blaine was fuming with rage, and he just wanted to leave. Thankfully, through the course of their heated discussion, the line had moved, so Blaine was the next one in line. He swiftly ordered his medium drip, and stepped to the side, trying to avoid making any sort of contact with Xander. Xander, however, had other ideas. He made his way over to where Blaine was standing. Blaine spotted him, and exclaimed, trying his best not to shout "Oh my god, Xander! Why can't you just get it through your head that I do not want to talk to you? I want absolutely NOTHING to do with you! Now, would you please just do us both a favor and never speak to me again?" He scooped up his coffee and stalked out of the coffee shop quickly, not even bothering to look back to see what Xander's reaction was.

By the time he got back to his dorm room, Blaine was furious. Of course Xander would try and talk to Blaine, just as he was getting over the pain of their falling out. He set his bags down, pulled all the components of his costume together, and went to get a shower started. It was after 6:00 in the evening, so he needed to work fast if he wanted to have himself put together for the party at 9:00. He made himself a playlist, and got set to his routine. He heard his phone signal that he had a text message waiting, however he chose to ignore it, figuring he could respond after he got out of the shower.

Half an hour later, Blaine was showered, and finally went over to check his phone. He had two text messages, one from Wes, one from Nick:

From Nick: **Hey Blaine! Can't wait to see you at the party tonight! Should definitely be fun!**

From Wes:** Anderson, Xander is going to be at the party tonight. You gonna be ok? I would uninvite him, but the party is hosted by the Warblers, so he kind of has to be there. Sorry buddy.**

Blaine looked at the second message and let out a single laugh. Of course Xander would be at the party. After seeing him today, Blaine was positive that he never wanted to see Xander again. He would try to remain civil at the party, and not let Xander ruin his evening. He took out his contacts, put on some glasses to finish off his costume, and left his room to head over to the Warblers Halloween Extravaganza.

True to Warbler form, the party was over the top. Wes had offered up his house to use for the party, since his parents were always out of town. He had the outside covered in faux cobwebs, with headstones strewn across the lawn to give the illusion of a graveyard. The outside did not do the inside of the house justice, though. Apparently, Wes had pulled out all of the stops for this party. The entire house was blacked out, with strobe lights flashing at random intervals, to give the effect of a storm happening inside. Halloween-inspired decorations littered the living room, and crawled up the stairs. Wes definitely had to have had the help of his girlfriend, because there was no way one straight man could do this all on his own, Blaine thought to himself. And sure enough, he caught Wes and his girlfriend striding down the stairs, hand in hand. "Nice costumes you two!" he exclaimed over the din of the music.

"Thanks, man! We're Romeo and Juliet after they've already died," Wes said, elbowing Blaine playfully. "And just who are you supposed to be, Anderson?" he added.

Blaine looked at Wes with his typical 'are you kidding me' look, and said, "isn't it somewhat obvious?" He was wearing his blue jeans, a blue Superman shirt, glasses, and his hair was gelled in a very Clark Kent style, and he wore a red cardigan.

Wes continued to stare at him with a blank look, until his girlfriend, Kate piped up and shouted, "SUPERMAN! You're Superman!"

Blaine beamed his smile at her and said, "Right you are, miss! Now shall we go grab a drink?" The three of them made their way over to the bar and each poured themselves a drink. Blaine stuck close to Kate, Wes and David for the majority of the night, only running into Xander once, and simply ignoring him the whole night. At around 3:00 in the morning, when everyone was good and liquored up, Blaine saw that as his opportunity to leave the party. Truth be told, he did not particularly enjoy big house parties like this, preferring small intimate gatherings with close friends. "Hey David, I'm gonna take off, I'm super tired, and everyone seems a little too drunk to actually remember the rest of the night. I'll see you at Warblers rehearsal on Monday," Blaine shouted, before walking out the door. He figured he would bring up the idea of doing Katy Perry to the Warblers when they were all a little more sober.

He got back to his room, changed out of his costume, and laid down on his bed, trying to find sleep. Instead, he just thought about how lonesome Dalton was becoming. Blaine was so tired of being everyone's friend, and confidante, but never quite someone's best friend and companion. He longed for that daily. He fell asleep, contemplating if he would be so lucky to find a guy like that in the coming year.


	7. Never Been Kissed

**Author's Note: So here is another update! I had some free time on my hands, so I just went on a writing kick. This is the first chapter that will integrate canon with my head canon. I hope that I did the actual Glee canon justice. I do not own Glee. Please read and review! **

Blaine brought the idea of singing Katy Perry to the Warblers the Monday after the Halloween party. The council was hesitant at first, thinking that her music was not very adaptable for a show choir, much less one that was a capella, and did not rely on instrumentation to create the background music. However, Blaine was able to convince them when he started humming out the beginning guitar strums of "Teenage Dream." This caught the attention of all the Warblers, who immediately jumped on board, knowing that they could put their signature spin on the number. After noticing that the entire glee club was on board, Wes, David and Thad nodded in assent, and gave their yes votes to the number.

After the initial discussion about performing the number, Blaine sort of took the reins as far as choreographing and helping the other members learn their parts. He decided that just some basic side-stepping and a few turns would be appropriate for the song. There was no need to make it over the top. Katy was already an over the top performer, so Blaine wanted to scale the number back a little bit, and make it more appropriate for a show choir. He spent the entire week rehearsing with the guys to make sure they nailed every single bit of the performance perfectly. He wanted to make sure that his debut as the lead singer of the Warblers went off without a hitch. Yes, he did know that the Warblers already had an outstanding reputation, but he just wanted to make sure he did his best to uphold said reputation.

"Warblers, may I have your attention, please?" Wes asked, trying to make his voice rise above the commotion of the group. Finally, after the last few voices in the room silenced, Wes began, "Warblers, I have an unfortunate announcement. Warbler Xander Scott has decided that he no longer wishes to be a part of the glee club. He cited his reasoning to the fact that he was having trouble balancing school on top of Warblers, and he wanted to concentrate on his studies," he continued. Blaine could not help but let the grin on his face become even wider. He was thinking to himself how much less awkward glee club would be without his jerk of an ex, or whatever he was, in the same room.

On Monday night after rehearsal, Nick caught up with Blaine and started walking with him to their dorm hall. "Dude, this song is so amazing! Definitely a good choice for your debut!" he said excitedly to Blaine.

"Thanks, man. I figured that the Warblers could use something to get them out of their typical song choice. And let's be honest, no one can resist the powers of Katy Perry," Blaine explained, laughter and elation in his voice.

They decided to hang out in Blaine's room for a little bit since it was still fairly early in the evening. "So how are you doing, Blaine? We haven't talked much since everything happened," Nick asked, genuinely concerned for Blaine. He still felt somewhat bad that Xander had kissed another guy in front of Blaine, another Warbler in fact, and it created such a weird dynamic.

"I'm doing ok," Blaine answered. "I guess I have just been trying to avoid Xander and not think about it. You have no idea how glad I was when Wes announced that Xander had decided to leave the Warblers," he added, a hint of happiness in his voice. He was still really hurt that everything went down the way it did, but it did not do to dwell on things that happened in the past.

Nick laughed as he replied, "Yeah, the guy was not that great of a singer, and was slow with picking up the choreography. You seem like a natural though, even going so far as to teach us choreography!"

"Well I'm glad I have at least one Warbler on my side," Blaine said, accepting the compliment graciously. The two of them continued to make idle chat for a few minutes before Blaine said "Thanks for sitting and chatting with me, Nick. I think I need to get some sleep so I'm ready for tomorrow's performance."

"Yeah, me too," Nick agreed. As he got to the door, he swiveled around on his feet, turned to Blaine and said, "I'm glad to hear you're doing better, buddy. What Xander did was really messed up, and I'm glad he's gone." He shot one last friendly smile at Blaine and shut the door behind him.

Blaine was so thankful for guys like Nick, Trent and Jeff. They were genuinely nice people who had his back no matter what. They did not seem to care one bit that he was gay. Trent was gay himself, and he was accepted just as readily as Blaine was. He turned on his iPod to some relaxing music, and fell asleep in a much better mood, and anxious to perform their song tomorrow.

Tuesday rolled around, and the day of the performance the Warblers had planned was finally upon them. They had been unanimous in deciding that it would take place during lunch period, so there would be as many students watching as possible. Since Xander decided to make his big scene and quit the glee club just days beforehand, there was no time to fill his spot, so they worked around it, and expanded their formations to make up for the missing body. Blaine was utterly distracted during his American Literature class. All he could think about was the fact that he was about to be in his first performance as a Warbler, and they were doing a song that he had chosen himself. It was all very surreal to Blaine. After what seemed like hours, the bell finally rang, and Blaine sprang up from his chair and darted out of the classroom. As he made his way to the staircase that led down to the senior commons, Blaine spotted something, rather someone, who looked out of place. Easily spotted among the sea of navy and red was a charcoal gray blazer made out of raincoat fabric. He thought that it seemed odd to see someone not in uniform, but gave it little thought. He quickly made his way past the young man when he heard a voice say, "Excuse me, can I ask you a question? I...I'm new here."

Blaine turned around and saw that it was the same charcoal gray blazer/raincoat. He gave a quick glance up and down, thinking that the boy looked familiar. It finally clicked inside him. This was the very boy that was with those two cheerleaders at the mall a couple months ago. He finally brought his attention back to the other guy and said, "My name's Blaine."

"Kurt," the other boy answered, before adding, "So what exactly is going on here?"

Blaine could not hold back his smile as he replied, "The Warblers! Every now and then they throw an impromptu performance in the senior commons. Tends to shut the school down for a while."

"So wait, the glee club here is kind of cool?" Kurt questioned, a somewhat odd expression flashing across his face.

-He tried to hide the shock he was feeling inside, but Blaine answered as friendly as possible, "The Warblers are like, rockstars. Come on. I know a shortcut." He extended his hand out and grasped Kurt's. He led him down a fairly empty hallway, which was in fact a much quicker way to get to the Senior Commons from the foyer staircase. Blaine reached out to open the double doors, and noticed that most of the other Warblers were already present, chatting with other students. He wasn't too terribly late.

Kurt took a deep breath in, while taking in his surroundings. After a few brief moments, he said, "Ooh, I stick out like a sore thumb." This was sort of true. Blaine finally took a quick second to notice the rest of Kurt's outfit; knee high socks, plaid shorts, and an orange tie. Blaine started to wonder if the kid was actually new, or even really a Dalton student at all.

"Well next time don't forget your jacket, new kid. You'll fit right in," Blaine said as he brushed the lapel of Kurt's jacket, and then took a step back. He quickly slid his bag off as he heard the rest of the guys start singing the opening notes to the song. "Now if you'll excuse me," he said to Kurt before starting to sing.

_Before you met me_

_I was alright, _

_But things were kinda heavy_

_You brought me to life _

_Now every February_

_You'll be my valentine, valentine._

He started off singing around to the whole room, projecting his voice out. However as soon as he got to the line about being brought to life, Blaine found his eyes trained specifically on Kurt, almost as if he was singing this song directly to Kurt. He noticed that Kurt seemed to be the only one listening intently, whereas the majority of the other guys in the room were still tuned in to their own things. He stepped back into the formation finally and initiated the choreography.

_Let's go all the way tonight._

_No regrets, just love._

_We can dance until we die._

_You and I will be young forever!_

_You make me _

_feel like I'm living a _

_Teenage Dream_

_The way you turn me on._

_I can't sleep._

_Let's run away._

_Don't ever look back. _

_Don't ever look back._

At this point, the entire crowd was completely tuned in to the song, some even starting to groove along to the beat. Blaine was sure he saw a guy or two actually fist-pumping. His eyes and attention were glued to Kurt however, who was still listening most diligently.

_My heart stops_

_when you look at me._

_Just one touch,_

_Now baby I believe._

_This is real,_

_so take a chance._

_Don't ever look back._

_Don't ever look back._

_Let's go all the way tonight._

_No regrets, just love._

_We can dance until we die._

_You and I will be young forever!_

_You make me _

_feel like I'm living a _

_Teenage Dream_

_The way you turn me on._

_I can't sleep._

_Let's run away._

_Don't ever look back. _

_Don't ever look back._

_My heart stops_

_when you look at me._

_Just one touch,_

_Now baby I believe._

_This is real,_

_so take a chance._

_Don't ever look back._

_Don't ever look back._

_I'mma get your heart racin'_

_In my skintight jeans_

_Be your Teenage Dream_

_Tonight._

The guys all stood still in their formations, with their sides to the front of the room. As Blaine was singing, he looked over to see Kurt watching intently, with the hugest grin on his face. For someone who Blaine had met mere minutes ago, there was something about this guy that Blaine was drawn to. He saw that Kurt blushed a little bit at the words "skintight jeans," and that made Blaine become all the more lost in the song. He figured he would talk to Kurt a little bit after they finished.

_Let you put your hands on me_

_In my skintight jeans _

_Be your Teenage Dream_

_Tonight._

The guys began to hum, ooh and ahh the instrumental break as Blaine continued to work the room, stealing the occasional glance over at Kurt to make sure he was still watching.

_YEAAAHH!_

_You make me _

_feel like I'm living a _

_Teenage Dream_

_The way you turn me on._

_I can't sleep._

_Let's run away._

_Don't ever look back._

_Don't ever look back._

_My heart stops_

_(Noooo, No, Look at me)_

_when you look at me._

_Just one touch,_

_Now baby I believe._

_This is real,_

_so take a chance._

_Don't ever look back._

_Don't ever look back._

_I'mma get your heart racin'_

_In my skintight jeans_

_Be your Teenage Dream_

_Tonight._

_Let you put your hands on me _

_In my skintight jeans_

_Be your Teenage Dream_

_Tonight._

On the last line, Blaine looked directly at Kurt. He noticed that the boy was clapping out of sheer enjoyment and happiness. 'At least someone enjoyed the show' Blaine thought to himself. He stepped out of formation and sauntered over to Kurt and asked, "So, did you enjoy the show, new kid?" He winked when he said new kid, making it clear that he knew Kurt was not a new transfer student.

"You guys are amazing! I understand why you say that the Warblers are rockstars!" Kurt exclaimed.

Blaine beamed a smile at Kurt and said, "Well I am certainly glad you enjoyed the show. I wish I had more time to chat, but I have got to get going to my next class. Let me give you my phone number." He waited until Kurt pulled out his iPhone, and then began, "Ok, are you ready? It's (419)204-1978." He turned and made to walk away before he heard Kurt addressing him.

"Wait! Can I give you mine too?" Kurt asked, somewhat hesitantly.

Blaine turned around, phone at the ready, and he said "Of course!"

"Alright, it's (419)210-4389. It was very nice to meet you Blaine..." Kurt tried to say his last name, but realized he did not know it.

"Anderson, Blaine Anderson. And likewise, Kurt..." Blaine replied, also realizing he did not know Kurt's last name.

"Hummel, It's Kurt Hummel." Kurt answered back. "Well I will let you go, and it was very nice meeting you again, Blaine." Kurt said, still rooted to the same spot he had been watching Blaine from.

As Blaine walked away, he shot one last quick glance at Kurt, and said, "I'll text you sometime and we can meet up for coffee." He then turned on his heels, and jaunted off towards his next class, feeling that not only did his performance go well, but he actually met someone new.

Algebra 2 class was always boring. Today however, Blaine could not stop thinking about Kurt, and why he had never seen him before. He was grateful though, because he had someone to actually sing the song to.

Blaine was broken out of his thoughts when Trent tapped him on the shoulder and said, "So who was the guy you were singing to? You could not take your eyes off of him the whole time." Trent gave a silent laugh after he finished. Blaine just started daggers at him.

"No one. I think he's a new kid. His name is Kurt," Blaine answered, trying to stay quiet and not draw attention to their conversation. Truth be told, he was sort of singing to Kurt the whole time. He was standing dead center in the room, after all.

"Oh, so you know his name already? Someone's got a crush," Trent teased, nudging Blaine again, and he noticed that Blaine was blushing.

"Shut up, Trent! He's just someone I met, who happened to be in the center of the room," Blaine asserted. He felt his phone vibrate from his pocket, signaling that he had a text message. He pulled out his phone and saw that he had a text message from Kurt. 'That was fast,' Blaine thought as he read the text message.

From (419)210-4389: **Hey Blaine, it's Kurt. Just wanted to say hi and that it was really awesome meeting you today.**

Trent looked over his shoulder, saw that Blaine was texting, and asked, "So is that him, dude? You've got this goofy grin on your face."

"Once again, shut up, Trent!" Blaine said, a little louder this time.

"Mr. Anderson? Mr. Jacobson? Is there anything you would like to share with the rest of the class?" their teacher asked, obviously noticing that the two of them were talking amongst themselves.

"No," the two of them replied at the same time. Blaine mouthed to Trent to shut up, and then returned to his phone where he programmed Kurt's number into his phone, and then typed out a quick response.

To Kurt Hummel: **Hey Kurt, it was wonderful meeting you today as well. If you're free Friday afternoon, I would love to meet for coffee if you want to. **

It was less than a minute before Blaine had another message coming into his phone. He stole a quick glance at the screen;

To Blaine Anderson: **I would like that very much. I'll see you around 4:00 on Friday. Have a good one, Blaine.**

After class had ended, Blaine and Trent walked toward the foyer stairs, engaged in conversation. "Well the new guy seemed definitely taken by you, Anderson," Trent said jokingly.

Blaine was not paying attention to what Trent was saying, but he did hone in on the words "new guy." Blaine was somewhat suspicious that this Kurt guy was not even a real Dalton student at all. Blaine had done the same thing while he was considering a transfer to Dalton Academy. He had gone on his own to the campus to check things out, and caught the tail end of a Warblers performance. He had the distinct idea that Kurt also had at least some knowledge of Dalton's policy on harassment, and wanted to come see it for himself. He did not share this thought of his with Trent, because he feared that news would spread to the other Warblers, and that would have just created even more drama than was necessary. There was already enough going on with Xander suddenly deciding he wanted to quit.

Friday could not come fast enough in Blaine's opinion. The semester was coming to a close, and teachers were beginning to pile on the work, trying to cram as much of the required material into the last month and a half as possible before the students went on winter break. Even though he was bogged down with studying, he managed to have a couple of quick text conversations with Kurt. They were kept brief though, usually between passing periods, or during lunch hour.

Blaine saw Kurt walking up the steps of Dalton, and a smile crept onto his face. They had been texting for the past three days, but seeing him in person was different. That feeling that he was meant to help Kurt starting creeping in again. For knowing someone less than a week, it sure felt like the two of them had gotten very close, very quickly. "Hey Kurt! Thank you so much for meeting me on such a short notice. How have you been?" He asked.

"I could be better, but otherwise, doing ok," Kurt answered flatly, but still with a smile on his face.

"Well why don't you come inside, and we can grab some coffee and chat," Blaine said in response to Kurt's less than enthusiastic answer. The two of them made their way over to the cafeteria, and Blaine gestured to an empty table. He told Kurt to go ahead and take a seat, and that he would be right back. He returned about five minutes later, two coffee cups in hand, and flanked by David and Wes. The three of them sat down, and Kurt stole a quick glance at the two strangers sitting next to Blaine.

"Latte?" Blaine asked congenially, sliding a cup over towards Kurt. He saw Kurt offer a voiceless thank you. He saw that Kurt was still eying Wes and David at the table, so he finally made the move to introduce the two of them. "This is Wes and David," he said, noticing that Kurt nodded in response.

"It's very civilized for you to invite me for coffee before you beat me up for spying," Kurt said flatly. He clearly thought that the three of them were upset that he was sent to spy on them.

"We are not going to beat you up," Wes stated simply.

"You were such a terrible spy, we found it sort of endearing," David added with a hint of joking in his voice.

"Which made me think that spying on us wasn't really the reason you came," Blaine finally finished, looking at Kurt. Truth be told, he did not really know why Kurt had come to watch them the other day, but he had an inkling.

"Can I ask you guys a question? Are...are you guys all gay?" Kurt asked hesitantly. He was still sitting very stiffly, back rimrod straight, which suggested that he was still somewhat on the defensive, and not too sure of how these guys would react to him being there.

This question all but confirmed Blaine's suspicions. He could not help but chuckle as he answered, "No. I mean I am, but these two have girlfriends." He wanted Kurt to be as comfortable as possible, so he decided to reveal the fact that he was gay, sensing that this fact would make Kurt relax a little bit.

David could sense a bit of Kurt's unease, so he informed him of one of Dalton's founding policies. "This is not a gay school. We just have a zero tolerance harassment policy," he explained.

"Yeah, everybody gets treated the same, no matter what they are. It's pretty simple," Wes added in.

At this point, Blaine saw that Kurt was becoming upset. He knew that something bigger was going on, and that clearly, things were not alright. "Would you guys excuse us?" Blaine asked of his two best friends. The both of them agreed to Blaine's request and made to get up.

"Take it easy, Kurt," Wes said as he got up from the table, collected his belongings and walked out of the cafeteria.

Blaine hesitated for a moment, simply choosing just to look at Kurt, and noticing the very obvious pain he was in. "I take it you're having trouble at school," he stated simply.

Kurt was stifling back tears, but decided to finally speak up. "I'm the only person out of the closet at my school. And I...I try to stay strong about it but there's this Neanderthal who's made it his mission to make my life a living hell. And nobody seems to notice."

By the time he had finished, tears were flowing freely down Kurt's face. Blaine's heart ached for the guy. He could definitely relate on some level. "I know how you feel. I got taunted at my old school and it really pissed me off. I even complained about it to the faculty. They were sympathetic, but you could just tell. Nobody really cared. It was like, 'hey, if you're gay your life's just gonna be miserable. Sorry. Nothing we can do about it.' So I left, and I came here. It's as simple as you have two options. I mean I'd love to tell you to just come enroll here, but tuition at Dalton's sort of steep, and I know that's not an option for everybody. Or you can refuse to be the victim. Prejudice is just ignorance, Kurt. And you have a chance right now to teach them."

"How?" Kurt questioned. For the first time, he finally thought that he could do something about his problems. He could tell that Blaine was a very smart guy, and incredibly nice.

Blaine leaned in closer to Kurt, wanting to make sure that Kurt knew that he was letting him in on something very private. "Confront him. Call him out. I ran, Kurt. I didn't stand up. I let bullies chase me away, and it is something that I really, really regret." Blaine admitted. He never told anyone about exactly what caused him to leave, but for some reason, he felt comfortable around Kurt.

"What would you have done, Blaine? If you hadn't left, what would you have done differently to try remedy your situation?" Kurt queried of Blaine. Truth be told, he was somewhat curious.

Blaine took a moment to think over his answer. If he was honest with himself, he didn't know what he really could have done to make his situation at his old school better, except maybe choosing to not tell his friends about his sexuality at the moment he did. "I don't think I would have come out when I did. I was only a sophomore, and you know how it is. My coming out spread like wildfire. That's when the taunting started."

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Blaine. It's so nice to finally have someone else to talk to about this sort of thing," Kurt stated with an honesty that Blaine had never heard from anyone before.

He looked at Kurt, wondering what it was that made him so comfortable around Kurt, that he was able to tell him about so many private things in his life. After a brief moment, he finally spoke up and said, "Of course, Kurt. I may not know exactly what you're going through right now, but I understand the anger and fear that you must be feeling. Nobody deserves that, and I hope that talking with me has helped a little bit."

"It definitely has helped! It's nice to know that there's someone else I can talk to who can relate on some level to what I'm going through," Kurt responded. Blaine could see that some of the tension in Kurt's body had been eased after their conversation.

"Just so you know, if you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to text or call me. You have my number now, so you know you always have someone you can talk to," Blaine stated candidly, wanting Kurt to know that he had an open door with Blaine. Truth be told, Blaine also said that because he wanted someone else to talk to who was on the same level as he was himself.

Kurt smiled and said to Blaine, "Thank you so much. That really means a lot. I mean I've got the other people in my glee club, but they don't really understand," he explained, eyes not wavering from Blaine.

"I know exactly what you mean. The guys in the Warblers are cool, but they don't get what it's like to be a gay guy in an all guy's school," Blaine countered back jokingly. "Well we have been chatting for a while, and I'm sure you've got a ton of stuff planned for the weekend, so I will let you go. It's a long drive back to Lima. Text me when you get home," he added quickly.

Kurt scooted his chair out and stood up. Blaine moved to stand next to him and they began to walk towards the door. Kurt turned to look at Blaine when they reached the front doors, and he said, " It was really nice chatting with you, and thank you so much again for listening to my sob story. I'll see you soon, and I will definitely make sure to text you when I get home," he said.

"Have a good night Kurt, and we should hang out again soon!" Blaine exclaimed to Kurt across the lawn. He turned around and walked back inside after he saw Kurt get into his car and drive away, only to be confronted by one Wesley Kim and one David Thompson.

"So, what's his story?" David questioned immediately, curiosity and wonder laden across his face.

Blaine looked at both of them as he explained, "He's a really nice guy. He has some issues going on with a dumb jock over at his public school. It seemed like he was just looking for someone to talk to." He saw the two of them exchange dubious glances at each other, and followed up with, "What's with the looks guys? He's just a guy who is really lonely, and I thought he could just use someone to listen to him. God knows I was in that situation a while ago. You both remember," he stated, reminding them of the terrible state Blaine was in when he first arrived at Dalton.

"We get it Blaine, it's really cool that you're trying to befriend this guy," Wes said, genuinely happy that Blaine had found someone with a similar story to his own. "So when are you guys gonna hang out again?" he asked.

"I'm not really sure. I told him to text me sometime, he seemed pretty excited about it. I don't know why, but I feel like I need to be there for this kid. He seems so lost, and just needs someone to show him that things really can get better," Blaine answered honestly. He hated seeing someone go through the same things that he himself once went through. He did not have anybody to turn to in his time of need, he was forced to go through everything alone. Now that he had met Kurt, Blaine felt that he needed to be that person for Kurt, the person that Kurt could turn to when things got too tough to handle on his own.

Wes gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder, and as he and David began to walk away, he said to Blaine, "The kid seems like a nice enough guy, he'd be lucky to have a good friend like you, Blaine," and then they both sped off down the hall towards their respective dormitories.

Blaine spent the entire weekend bogged down with a pile of homework that would just not get any smaller. He holed himself up in his room, only appearing for meal times, and the one Saturday night Warbler rehearsal that Wes, Thad and David had called. Other than that, Blaine had become a recluse, so he did not have any spare time for anything, including texting Kurt. On Sunday morning, he had finally reached a point in his studies where he could take a break, and he noticed that he had two texts from Kurt. One from Friday night, and the other from Saturday afternoon.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 12th 8:03 PM): **Hey Blaine, I got home safely. Thanks again for chatting with me and allowing me to vent to you. It definitely took a load off. -K**

To Blaine Anderson (sent Saturday November 13th 2:26 PM): **Hi Blaine! I didn't get a response from you, so I assumed you were probably busy with the crazy workload that private school carries, hehehe. -K**

Blaine read the second text message and felt a little bad that he had not even taken the time to check his phone and notice that Kurt had tried to talk to him again. He hastily began typing out a response to both text messages:

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 14th 11:15 AM): **Kurt, I am sooooo sorry that I did not respond to either of your texts! I am glad that you were able to get home safely, and the pleasure was all mine as far as our conversation went! You would also be correct in your assumption about my workload. There's currently still a Mount Everest sized stack of papers sitting on my desk. I think they're taunting me. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I am alive, lol! Hope that your weekend is going well. -B**

After about five minutes, Blaine received a response from Kurt.

To Blaine Anderson: **Hey, don't even worry about it! Glad to hear that you're still breathing, lol! I can only imagine how much work that your teachers must mete out every single day. Thankfully, the students at my school are so idiotic that the teachers barely hand out any work. I'm top of my class in almost every subject. -K**

Blaine could not help but chuckle as he typed out his retort.

To Kurt Hummel: **Oh, ever the modest one, aren't we Mr. Hummel? ;) -B**

He returned to his pile of history homework for a total of ten minutes before receiving his next response from Kurt.

To Blaine Anderson: **Oh, I'm not even trying to be modest, it's fact. If I wanted to be modest, I would have just said, "I'm a pretty smart guy." Let's just say modesty has never been something I've been good at, Blaine Anderson. -K**

Blaine laughed out loud when he read the message. Kurt was a really funny guy. A bit on the dry side, but it was a good contrast to Blaine's not so witty sense of humor. He hated having to cut their conversation short, but he needed to finish his work. He frowned a bit as he typed out a quick response.

To Kurt Hummel: **HAHAHA wit! I love it! We are going to get along very well! I hate to cut this short, but I have to finish my homework, otherwise I might be a very dead Warbler by tomorrow. I'll text you tomorrow afternoon, sound good? -B**

A couple minutes passed before Blaine received one last text.

To Blaine Anderson: **Sounds like a plan! Good luck with your homework. Please finish. You being dead would be bad. Have a good one, Blaine! -K**

With that, Blaine turned his phone off and returned to his homework. It was after 9:00 before he had finally finished all of the work he needed to do. David poked his head into the room to check up on Blaine to see how he was doing. "Hey man, you finally finished?" he asked.

"Yeah, finally! After almost ten hours of tedious busy work, I can successfully say that I know enough about the Boxer Rebellion to write a freaking dissertation on the whole thing, right down to the last serf," Blaine said with an exasperated tone in his voice.

"I totally know what you mean, man! I'm so glad I'm not taking that class as AP. You're a brave man, Blaine Anderson," David responded with a grin. "Anyway, if you're not too tired, I was wondering if you wanted to meet up with a couple of the guys in the Senior Commons and watch a movie?" he asked, hoping Blaine would join them.

Blaine contemplated the offer for a bit. He did want to get out, but he was really tired, and he had a full day tomorrow. "Thank you so much for the offer, David. I will have to respectfully decline, however. I am beyond exhausted, and I have a quiz on all of this history crap, as well as an in-class essay for American Literature," he explained. He saw David's initial smile begin to turn itself upside down, so he quickly added, "Maybe next time? I'll be there for sure!"

"I'm gonna hold you to that, Anderson! Get some sleep, and I will see you at rehearsal tomorrow afternoon," David answered, giving Blaine a light punch on the shoulder. Blaine read a little bit out of Dorian Gray, and then finally decided to call it a night and get some sleep.

Blaine woke up the next morning with a sense of foreboding. He felt thoroughly prepared for his teacher's upcoming lecture on the Boxer Rebellion, so he was not too terribly nervous about his AP History class. It was his in-class essay that was unnerving him. He had no idea what the teacher was going to have as a prompt, so it caused Blaine to be very worried about what was to come in the class. He had a borderline A in the class, so this essay would essentially determine if he would have an A going into the final examination. By the time 3:00 rolled around, after an in-depth lecture on Chinese history leading up to and after the Boxer Rebellion, a mundane lesson on augmented matrices, and an in-class essay from Hell, Blaine was all too happy to be heading to Warbler's rehearsal.

On his way there, he bumped into Xander. He immediately felt anger and rage building up inside of him. There had been so much he wanted to say to him after everything went down. He wanted so much to tell Xander how much of a coward he was, and after speaking to Kurt about standing up and confronting those who hurt you, Blaine decided to seize the moment. "Hey Xander. I have something I want to say to you," Blaine said in the hallway, loud enough for Xander to hear him.

"What do you want Anderson? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me," Xander answered back, with a bit of bite in his voice.

Blaine scoffed at Xander, "You really think I actually want to talk to you? I still want nothing to do with you, Xander. I just thought that since you told me exactly what you thought of what we had over the summer, I would tell you exactly what I think of you. I think you are a coward. I think that you quitting Warblers over what you claim to be 'academic hardship' is a complete copout. I also find it funny that you couldn't even find the courage to be straight up with me about why you broke things off. You only came clean after I caught you making out with Trent. You are worth less than nothing, Xander. I hope that you find something in your life worth pursuing, because at this point, you seem to have absolutely nothing going for you. Good bye, and good riddance," Blaine practically shouted before storming off towards the Senior Commons for rehearsal, leaving Xander standing completely still in the middle of the hallway.

Once he was in the confines of the Commons, he finally let out a sigh of relief. He felt so much better after finally telling Xander off. After calming himself down a little bit, he decided he should text Kurt, seeing as how he said he would. All he could think of was one word that was sticking out in his mind. He searched for Kurt's number, and pulled up a text message.

To Kurt Hummel: **Courage.**

It was a bit cryptic, but Blaine hoped that Kurt got the intended message from the single word. It was something that Blaine was finally able to muster up for someone who was hurting him. He only wanted Kurt to be able to do the same with his tormenters. Blaine did not get an immediate response. He figured Kurt was probably in his last class, or in the middle of Glee rehearsal. He remembered that Kurt mentioned something about being involved in his high school's glee club. That got Blaine to thinking. He did not really know where Kurt went to school. He remembered Kurt saying he lived in Lima, so that meant he either went to Lima High School, or McKinley High. Blaine only hoped that Kurt did not go to McKinley. The New Directions were the glee club of McKinley High School, and Blaine did not want to think about having to compete against his new friend in competition.

Blaine did not even notice that other Warblers were filing into the room. He quickly stowed his phone into his bag, and prepared for the day's rehearsal. Thad stood up behind the desk he shared with David and Wes and attempted to get the attention of the rest of the group. Wes had to inevitably strike his gavel on the table in order to effectively quiet the rest of the guys. Thad finally said, "Warblers, we have called this rehearsal today in order to discuss preliminary ideas for our setlist for Sectionals. As you may know, we are competing against the New Directions from McKinley High School, and The Hipsters, which are a group of elderly people seeking to obtain their GED's," he went on with explaining the competition to the Warblers. Blaine could feel his phone vibrating in his bag right next to him. He pulled it out and saw that Kurt had finally responded to his earlier text message.

To Blaine Anderson: **Courage backfired.**

He immediately began to worry. What exactly could that have meant? He swiftly typed out a response.

To Kurt Hummel: **Is everything ok? Do you need to talk? I'm in rehearsal but I can still text.**

A response was blinking onto his phone screen in less than a minute.

To Blaine Anderson: **Something happened today. Can I meet you somewhere? **

Blaine was growing more worried by the minute. He stood up and tried to get Wes' attention. He finally just went up to their desk, and pulled Wes aside. Instead of making a scene and making up a story in front of the whole group, he thought it would be better to just be truthful with Wes. "Hey man, Kurt's in a bit of trouble. I'm gonna go meet up with him and see if everything is ok," Blaine explained. He received a quick nod of approval from Wes, and Blaine gathered his things and left the room, while simultaneously typing out a text to Kurt.

To Kurt Hummel: **I am leaving rehearsal right now. Meet me at the Lima Bean Coffee House at 6:00 ok? Everything is going to be ok, Kurt.**

As he got into his Jetta, he received one last response from Kurt.

To Blaine Anderson: **Thank you, Blaine. You didn't have to leave rehearsal. I will see you soon.**

Blaine smiled a bit at Kurt's little bit of modesty that he claimed not to have, and typed.

To Kurt Hummel: **Don't mention it. See you soon, buddy. :)**

He drove as fast as he possibly could, while still obeying traffic laws. He tried not to think of what could have happened to Kurt. His car was silent the entire trip down to Lima. By the time he pulled up to the Lima Bean, it was 5:55, so he was early. He was surprised to see Kurt's black Navigator already parked in the parking lot. Blaine hopped out of his car and strode through the doors to the small coffee shop. He spotted Kurt sitting at a table in the corner, his head buried in his hands. "Hey Kurt!" Blaine called from the entrance.

He saw Kurt's head shoot up and look around for who had called his name. He spotted Blaine and walked over to him. "Hey Blaine. How are you?" Kurt asked, his voice sounding tired.

"I'm doing ok, but the important question is, how are you doing? What exactly happened?" Blaine questioned of Kurt, wanting to know what happened to cause Kurt such distress. They approached the counter to order their coffee, and Blaine saw Kurt pull out his wallet. "Don't even worry about it, it's on me, Kurt. Order whatever you want," Blaine said as he motioned for Kurt to place his wallet back in his pocket.

Kurt gave Blaine a small smile, and then turned to the barista and ordered, "Can I please have a grande nonfat mocha no whipped cream, please?"

"Of course, darling. And Blaine, your usual medium drip with room?"

Blaine smiled at the barista and as he handed her his debit card, he said, "Why yes, please. Thanks Alexis!" He looked over at Kurt, and saw that Kurt had an inquisitive expression on his face. "I sort of come here a lot," Blaine said sheepishly. "I'm what you call a coffee addict," he added on, which received a laugh out of Kurt.

"Good to know," Kurt said, stifling his laughter so he could speak. The two of them made their way back to the table Kurt had initially been sitting at. Blaine made to take off his coat, and Kurt guffawed when he saw that Blaine was still in his Dalton uniform. "Do you live in that uniform?" Kurt asked jokingly.

"You'd be surprised actually. There's not really much opportunity for me to wear regular clothes, except on weekends," Blaine explained to Kurt. "So, yes, I practically do live in it," he followed up with. They both broke out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. A silence followed after the laughter had subsided, bringing the two of them back to the original reason why they had met up. "Is everything ok, Kurt?" Blaine finally asked.

"I wish I could say yes, but unfortunately, no. So after I received your text message, which by the way, thank you for sending, I felt somewhat empowered. I was looking at it while I was walking towards my locker. Then Karofsky..." he stopped when he saw Blaine raise his eyebrows, as if he didn't know who Karofsky was. "The Neanderthal who's making my life hell," he explained. "Anyway, he shoved me into a row of lockers again. I decided then and there that I had had enough of it. So I chased after him into the locker room and confronted him." He stopped, almost as if he did not want to continue.

Blaine looked Kurt right in the eyes, knowing that something very serious was on the tip of Kurt's tongue. He said, "Kurt it's ok, you can tell me. You will not get any sort of judgment from me. I'm here to listen. If you feel comfortable enough to continue, then go right ahead. But if not, I completely understand."

"Thank you Blaine," Kurt said, feeling comfortable enough to continue with his story. "So I started shouting what I had always wanted to say to him. I said something about him being a scared little boy who couldn't handle how extraordinarily ordinary he was. Then before I knew what happened, I felt his lips on mine. He kissed me. He kissed me, and I did not want him to," Kurt finished.

The look on Blaine's face was one of shock, mixed with anger and rage. He thought to himself 'how could anyone be so cruel as to do that to another human being?' He tried to compose himself, and he stared at Kurt and said, "Kurt I am so sorry that happened to you. No one deserves that to happen to them, especially not someone as nice and kind as you," he spoke, just barely above a whisper.

"I guess part of me just thought that I would be able to feel better after finally confronting my biggest tormentor. And now all I feel is violated and dirty. I can still smell him on me," Kurt explained with a disgusted look on his face.

"Listen to me, Kurt. You are not a dirty person. You are a victim of someone else's cruelty and anger, and clearly their confused sexual identity as well," Blaine responded to Kurt's previous statement. "Do you think if you tried to talk to him again it would help?" He suggested.

Kurt mulled that over in his mind before answering, "I don't want to talk to him by myself. I'm terrified that he might try something else," he added.

"I'll be there with you, if you'd like. I figure that two people would be able to have more of a handle on this situation than one," Blaine explained his reasoning.

Kurt looked at Blaine in the eyes as he asked, "You would actually do that for me?"

Blaine gave a small laugh as he said, "I would be happy to do this for you Kurt." He smiled at Kurt and continued, "Like I said, you don't deserve what is happening to you, so if I can help in any way possible, then I am more than willing to do it."

"Blaine you've been so amazing. We barely know each other very well, and you're already willing to put yourself out there for me. I've never had anyone do that for me," Kurt stated honestly. "Well I better get going, I've got homework that needs to get done. Lunch is at 12:30 tomorrow. Do you want to meet me in the parking lot at school?" he asked.

"That sounds good. Where is your school, Kurt?" He asked, still not knowing where Kurt attended high school.

"I go to McKinley. It's in Lima," Kurt answered simply.

Blaine tried to hide the surprise that he was feeling. 'Of course Kurt goes to McKinley. That means he's my competition at Sectionals' Blaine thought to himself. He quickly put on a smile and said, "Oh yeah! I know where that is, my parents live in Lima, so I go home over the weekend," Blaine explained. "I better get going as well. I'll see you at 12:30 sharp tomorrow. Have a good night Kurt," he said as they both made their way towards the door.

"Sounds good, Blaine. I'll see you tomorrow," Kurt said as he walked to his car. He turned to Blaine once more and stated, "Thanks again, Blaine. For everything."

"Anytime, Kurt," Blaine answered. He flashed another smile, then hopped into his car and drove off. He couldn't help but dwell on the fact that his fears were confirmed. Kurt went to McKinley High School. That meant that he was a part of the New Directions. He would be competing against Blaine and the Warblers during Sectionals. Blaine decided that he would not bring up this fact to the rest of the group. They did not need to know that Blaine had befriended a boy from a rival show choir. As far as the Warblers knew, Kurt was just a guy coming to watch them perform. Blaine arrived back at Dalton Academy at 10:00 and went straight to bed.

The next morning, he woke up early so he could get ready. He decided that instead of skipping the whole day, he would attend his first two classes, and then leave during the break. He was in a fairly decent spot in each of his classes that he could afford to miss at least one day. At 10:15 AM, he got back into his car, and began the two hour drive out to Lima again. He played the Spring Awakening soundtrack as he made the drive. He arrived in the parking lot and typed out a text to Kurt.

To Kurt Hummel: **Hey, I'm here. -B**

He received a response after a couple of minutes.

To Blaine Anderson: **I am still in class, can you meet me in the quad? -K**

Blaine began drafting his own response.

To Kurt Hummel: **Yeah that's totally fine. See you in a bit. -B**

Blaine entered the school grounds, and began trying to find the quad. He noticed that he was getting some strange looks from students, then he realized that he was still in his Dalton uniform. The lunch bell finally rang, and Blaine caught sight of Kurt almost immediately.

"Hey Kurt, it's good to see you again!" Blaine exclaimed, genuinely happy to see Kurt again. The two of them made their way across the quad, and began climbing the stairs that led to Kurt's locker.

"Thanks again for coming," Kurt said softly, and with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. Blaine could tell that this whole situation was really draining Kurt of his energy.

"Don't worry about it, just let me do the talking," Blaine answered reassuringly. He only hoped that this Neanderthal of Kurt's was open to calmly discussing what had happened.

Kurt pointed out Dave Karofsky, a hulking jock in a red letterman jacket coming down the stairs and stated to Blaine,"There he is."

"I got your back," Blaine maintained. He tried to hide the small bit of fear that he was feeling. The guy was huge, and could definitely beat Blaine into a pulp in an instant if he chose to do so. He decided to continue on though. He swore to Kurt that he would try and rectify this situation before it got worse. "Excuse me," he called out to Karofsky.

Karofsky turned around instantly. He took one look at Kurt, and then looked at Blaine, and tried to come up with his best retort. "Hey lady boys. This your boyfriend, Kurt?" he shot at Kurt and Blaine.

"Kurt and I would like to talk to you about something," Blaine explained, attempting to stay calm, despite the anger rising inside himself. He had experienced homophobia before, but what was coming out of this boy's mouth was much worse. From what Kurt had explained to him, this guy was deeply in the closet. Blaine had expected some vile things to be said from the guy.

Karofsky simply rolled his eyes, walked past the two of them and said, "I gotta go to class."

"Kurt told me what you did," Blaine stated matter-of-factly. Karofsky stopped dead in his tracks.

He turned around and asked with snark in his voice, "Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"You kissed me," Kurt said flatly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Karofsky denied, his eyes growing wider at the realization that someone else knew what happened.

Blaine took a couple of deep breaths in, trying to compose himself, and then began,"It seems like you might be a little confused, and that's totally is a very hard thing to come to terms with, and you should just know that you're not alone," he concluded, hoping that Karofsky would see that he had two other people he could reach out to who understood exactly what he was struggling with.

At those words, Karofsky sped up the stairs, and lunged at Blaine, "Do not mess with me, ok?" he commanded as he shoved Blaine against the chain-linked fence that guarded the staircase.

Kurt, having been relatively silent the majority of the conversation finally stepped in between Blaine and Karofsky and yelled,"You have to stop this!" Dave looked shocked at having been pushed away by Kurt. He stood in silence, and then finally stalked off down the stairs into the commotion of the quad.

Blaine snickered as he said, "Well he's not coming out of the closet any time soon." He then noticed that Kurt was seated on one of the steps, his face hidden in his hands. He looked visibly upset. "What's going on? Why are you so upset?" Blaine asked out of concern.

"Because up until yesterday, I had never been kissed. Well at least, one that counted," Kurt admitted. He had told Blaine that Karofsky had kissed him in the locker room, but he neglected to say that it had been his first kiss, and that it was stolen from him by a smelly, overweight football player.

Blaine got up from the step he had taken a seat on, nudged Kurt, and said, "Come on. I'll buy you lunch." He saw the hint of a smile creeping onto Kurt's face as he said that. 'Kurt was a much stronger guy than he gave himself credit for,' Blaine thought to himself


	8. Of Lunches and Developments

**Author's Note: Sorry again for the delay. I had a bit of a writer's block that would not go away. But I was able to get over it, and I bring you Chapter 7 of "A Year in the Life of Blaine Warbler Anderson." As usual, I don't own "Glee."**

The two of them made their way out of the campus towards Blaine's car. Blaine could tell that Kurt was happy to get out of the confines of the school grounds. He started his car, and Katy Perry's "Firework" immediately started blaring through the speakers.

"Wow. Someone clearly has a very deep love of Ms. Perry, don't they?" Kurt questioned jokingly as he let out a laugh.

Blaine blushed slightly. It wasn't his fault that her songs were so incredibly catchy and fun to listen to. Not to mention they were the perfect songs to sing at the top of your lungs while driving. "Hey, don't insult the Perry. She is amazing. And yes, I may have a SLIGHT gay boy crush on her, I'll admit it," he said sheepishly. He never admitted that fact to anybody, but things just felt easier around Kurt. He tried his best to make Kurt feel comfortable, knowing that Kurt was probably still reeling from finally confronting his biggest tormentor. If Blaine admitted it to himself, the experience helped him just as much, if not more than it did for Kurt. He had never stood up for himself to any of his bullies when he went to public school, so it gave him some sense of closure to know that he was able to stand up for someone else, even if it was somebody that he himself did not know very well yet. Blaine took a moment to look over at Kurt, and saw that he was looking pensively out of the window. "You ok?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

Kurt shook himself out of his thoughts to answer, "Yeah, everything's ok, I'm just thinking. At this time last year, I was getting thrown into dumpsters, with not even a thought of trying to defend myself against those Neanderthals. I guess I just can't believe that I finally was able to do something about my situation. I have you to thank Blaine. I don't think I would have been able to muster up the strength to stand up to that idiot if you hadn't been there with me," he added.

"Don't mention it, Kurt. I'm here for you whenever you need a friend," Blaine answered. He flashed a smile in Kurt's direction as they pulled up to a restaurant called Thai Jasmine and said, "so I hope you like Thai food. I'm sort of a big fan of spicy food. If you aren't a fan, we can go to Daphne's Greek Cafe, it's just down the street." He was admittedly a bit nervous. He wanted to make Kurt as at peace as possible. Blaine got out of his car and made to open Kurt's door for him. If there was one thing he could thank his father for, it was for teaching him to have impeccable manners. Blaine immediately noticed the slight smile that crossed across Kurt's face.

Kurt stepped out of the car and looked up at Blaine. He could not believe that another guy was actually making an effort to hang out with him. "Thank you, kind sir," he said softly, a smile plastered on his face. He also was not used to anyone displaying any sort of thing even resembling manners. He was a little taken aback by the situation he found himself in, but in a good way. They made their way towards the restaurant, and Kurt opened the door for Blaine. When Blaine looked back at him, Kurt took that moment to wink and say, "For the record, I love Thai food, and I'm an even bigger fan of spicy food. I'm trying to get my dad to eat healthier, and neither of those were an option. I haven't been able to cook either of those for the past couple of months," he explained, albeit a bit reservedly.

"Eat healthier? Does he eat fast food every day or something?" Blaine queried of Kurt. He saw that Kurt was shrugging his shoulders, trying not to make eye contact with Blaine. It was obvious that Kurt did not like to talk about areas concerning his father. "Hey, if you don't want to talk about it, I completely understand," he said, putting a reassuring hand on Kurt's shoulder. They stood in the lobby looking over the menu while they waited for a host to seat them. "Now what do you want to eat? I heard that the Red Curry is delicious! But if you're going for super spicy, I suggest the Green Curry," Blaine suggested.

The host finally walked over to the podium and asked cheerfully, "Hello, just the two of you for lunch?" He glanced at the two of them and gestured for Blaine and Kurt to follow him towards a table. After they were seated, Blaine noticed that he was lingering at the table, blatantly staring at Kurt. He glanced over at Kurt and saw that the other boy had his arms across his chest. He was clearly uncomfortable from the attention being paid to him by a perfect stranger.

Blaine answered hastily, "Yes, thank you very much. Could we get a server quickly please? We're on our lunch break from school," he explained. After he walked away, he looked back at Kurt and said, "Sorry about that. You ok, Kurt?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kurt answered quickly. He sighed and then amended his statement, "That's a lie. I'm still a little bit shaken up from what we just did. Part of me can't help but think that we might have just provoked his anger even more. And then having that host blatantly check me out, it definitely did not help my nerves."

"You're allowed to be shaken up. You just faced your biggest bully, that's bound to be something monumental for you," Blaine said truthfully. He hesitated before he said, "That guy was kind of obvious with his attempt at flirting with you, wasn't he?"

Kurt tried to stifle his chuckle, but to no avail. He let out a loud laugh as he tried to get out, "Oh, my god, I know! I kept thinking to myself, 'does he think that he's being subtle? He's about as subtle as a clowns bow tie.' I mean..."

As Kurt was about to get his next sentence out, Blaine saw that the host was making his way over to the table, and Blaine made a shushing motion to Kurt with his hand. He looked up at the man and stated flatly, "I thought you went to get a server." He did not care that he sounded rude. The guy was being incredibly obnoxious by staring at Kurt like he was a piece of meat.

"I am the server," the guy replied curtly. "What can I get for you and your handsome friend here?" he asked, emphasizing the words "handsome friend."

Blaine had had enough at that point. He slammed his menu down on the table as he confronted the host/server. "You know what, how about instead of flirting with my friend over here, very obviously, I might add, you take our orders, and bring them out quickly." He took one last quick look at the menu and said sternly, "I would like the Red Curry with chicken, please. Kurt what would you like?"

"I think I'm going to go with your suggestion and try the Green Curry. And I'd like that with tofu, please," Kurt answered. He was looking directly at Blaine, paying no attention to the server.

Blaine looked back to their server and said, "Did you get all that, ummm...Tyler?" Blaine asking, spitting out the name he read on the name-tag. Blaine saw him nod his head, and then instructed with a wave of his wrist, "Good. Now I suggest that you bring out our food as quickly as possible, got it?"

"Yes," Tyler responded flatly. He stormed away from the table and into the kitchen without so much as a backward glance at their table.

As soon as the doors closed, Blaine looked at Kurt and said, "I am so profusely sorry for how I acted just now. That is not normally how I talk to people in customer service environments. He was just being incredibly disrespectful to you, and with what you've gone through the past few days, that was the last thing you needed."

"Blaine, don't worry about it. But thank you for caring enough to call him out on his very bad flirting," Kurt said jokingly. "Now, where were we before that unattractive server, what was his name...Tyler...interrupted us,? Oh, right, I was about to tell you about my dad and why I am trying to get him to eat healthier. He had a heart attack a couple months ago. He ate very poorly, and now that he's out of the hospital, I am trying to see to it that he gets proper nutrition," he revealed. "I need more water," Kurt added, spying the waiter eying their table. He snapped his fingers to get the attention of him, and said, "I would like some more water Taylor."

"Tyler," the waiter said in a snappy tone.

Kurt rolled his eyes and replied with sass, "Whatever. You may go," and he sent Tyler away with another snap of his fingers.

Blaine was shocked and intrigued by what he was hearing from Kurt. For only seventeen, it seemed like the guy had been through a lot of interesting, and some troubling things. He listened as Kurt explained about how he joined New Directions, the insufferable diva known as Rachel Berry, and how at the end of his sophomore year, he dressed up in a full Lady Gaga costume. He listened attentively as Kurt explained the sordid details of his relationship with a guy named Finn Hudson. He sympathized when he heard Kurt talk about his intense crush on Finn. He could definitely relate; he had had many a crush on many a straight guy. What was more interesting still, was when Kurt talked about how his dad and Finn's mom began dating, thus killing Kurt's crush. Blaine concluded one thing for certain: Kurt Hummel's bad side was not a side you wanted to be on. By the time Kurt had finished relating his tales of McKinley High, their food had arrived. Kurt took a bite, and Blaine saw his face light up. "Blaine, this is amazing, and you were definitely right! It is so spicy! But I love it!" Kurt exclaimed after he had swallowed his food.

"I'm really glad you like it. I came here a few weeks ago and loved it. HE," Blaine gestured towards the kitchen, "was not here at the time. He is either new, or was not working that day. I don't think he will be giving us anymore trouble. He looked genuinely scared of me when he brought our food out. I think that he assumed you are my boyfriend," Blaine joked, laughing as he grabbed a bite of curry from his plate.

Kurt scoffed as well. "Well, you know what they say when you assume something," he jested.

"I sure do, and that Tyler, or whatever his name is, definitely made a complete ass out of himself if I do say so myself," Blaine said through his laughter. "Hey, I have a question for you," Blaine said, still trying to calm himself down after the fit of laughter he and Kurt were engaged in. "What are you doing next Friday, Kurt?" Blaine questioned, hoping that Kurt would say he was free.

Kurt perked up at the question, once again not used to someone actually caring to ask

what he was doing with his spare time. "I don't have any plans yet," he answered. "Did

you have something in mind?" he asked back to Blaine.

Blaine leaned in a little bit closer and answered, "Well I had something. If you're not

interested, you don't have to go, but my mom got two tickets to the Lima Community

Playhouse from her job. RENT is the current production, and neither she nor my father

could be less interested in the show. If you're not doing anything, I was wondering if you

would like to go see it with me? I heard Greg Evigan is going to play Roger." He did not

want to seem too eager, but he was really hoping that Kurt would say yes. What he was

not expecting was for Kurt to almost jump out of his chair in excitement.

"OH MY GOD! I love that show, Blaine. It's one of the many shows I want to be in. Of course I'd love to go see it with you!" Kurt exclaimed with excitement. "That will be a perfect way to end Black Friday!" he added enthusiastically.

Blaine smiled one of his side grins, genuinely happy with Kurt's response. "Oh my god, I totally forgot that it's Thanksgiving next Thursday!" he said. "Then it's settled. Next Friday, you and I are seeing RENT!" he practically shouted. He took a quick glance at his watch, and noticed that it was almost 1:30, and Kurt probably needed to get back to school, and Blaine definitely needed to start heading back to Westerville. "Well hey, I hate to cut this short, but I should probably get you back to school before you miss your next class, and I need to start the long drive back to Westerville," he explained. The two of them made their way out of the restaurant, and Blaine once again opened the car door for Kurt.

"Your parents must be really proud of the way they raised you. You are like the perfect gentleman," Kurt said. Almost just as quickly as he said it, his eyes widened in obvious shock. "Oh, my god. I cannot believe I just said that out loud," he said hastily.

He tried to stifle a laugh, but it came out and he could not hold it in. "Kurt don't worry, it's totally fine. And thank you for the compliment. My father is very big on tradition and manners in our house, so I guess that is one trait of his that I am proud to say that I carry as well," Blaine said with confidence in his voice. He took great pride in the fact that he was an extremely well-mannered young man. Although he and his father did not get along very well, he did make sure to instill morality and proper etiquette in Blaine. They arrived back at McKinley High School within minutes of the bell ringing. As Kurt was getting out, Blaine shouted after him, "If you're not busy this weekend, let's hang out!"

Kurt turn around and responded, "Definitely! I'll text you! Thanks for lunch!" he added, and turned around and walked into the school grounds. Blaine waved goodbye, but Kurt was already too far away to notice, so he started his car again and headed towards the freeway to head back towards Dalton Academy. During the long trek back to Westerville, Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" shuffled in to Blaine's iPhone, and he was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea for the Warblers setlist at Sectionals. The song's dominant ukelele rhythms made for perfect a capella harmonization, and the faint drumset in the background would be no trouble for Jake, the Warblers resident beat-boxer. He found himself singing along to the song, and he just knew that the other guys would go along with his idea. It was not as outlandish as his Katy Perry idea, but it still had the potential to put the Warblers flair on it. He decided he would bring it up to the council next Monday during their rehearsal. Blaine arrived back on campus a little after 4:00 PM, and did not even care about the fact that he had a mountain of assignments from the day that he missed. The fact that he would be up until the wee hours of the morning was overshadowed by the fact that he had a really great day for the first time in months.

The week sped by in the blink of an eye for Blaine, and before he knew it, it was already Friday. He had probably been the happiest that he had been in a very long time. The year started with him being stomped on by a guy who merely thought of Blaine as a "good time," but got progressively better as he immersed himself in with the Warblers. Now that he had met Kurt and started developing a friendship with him, Blaine felt like he was on top of the world. He was hoping that he could see Kurt over the weekend. It finally felt like Blaine had gotten what he had always wanted: another gay guy that he could have as a friend to talk to about anything and everything. Blaine had a feeling that Kurt could most definitely be that person, despite only knowing him for a week and a half. He sat down for his first class of the morning and was greeted by his phone vibrating in his pocket.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:17 AM): **Oh my god, save me Blaine! o_O**

He had to stifle his laughter so it would not get so loud. He loved that Kurt was so over the top with his dramatics sometimes.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:23 AM): **And what could be so urgent that you would need me to come and save you, Mr. Hummel?**

His phone vibrated a mere thirty seconds later with Kurt's response, and Blaine continued his silent fit of hysterical giggling.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:23 AM): **If you only knew. I'm sitting next to this guy in my English class, and he literally smells like he has not bathed in weeks. MONTHS even. HELP. ME. I cannot deal with this torture so early in the morning. And I haven't even had my coffee yet. **

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:25 AM): **OMG I am laughing so hard right now, it's getting difficult to keep quiet! I completely feel your pain about not having your morning coffee. If I don't have at least 3 cups before 9:00 AM, a different Blaine comes out. You don't want to meet this Blaine. He's not fun to be around.**

As he typed that out, he found himself gripping his third cup of coffee like it was a lifeline. His phone vibrated a couple minutes later.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:28 AM): **Well let's make sure that whenever we hang out, you are properly caffeinated. **

Blaine read the message, and could not help but smile at how easy their conversation flowed. It was as if the two of them had been friends for years. He put his phone on his knee as to make it look like he was paying attention in his class, which truth be told, he was not in the least.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:35 AM): **Sorry about the delayed response. Had to make it look like I was actually being productive in class, lol. Speaking of hanging out, are you free tonight? I don't have rehearsal, and would love to get coffee if you're free!**

The response he received from Kurt was almost immediate.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:36 AM): **It's ok. And yes, I am free tonight. Do you want to meet at the Lima Bean around 6:00ish?**

Blaine smiled one of his lopsided smiles and typed out a response.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:40 AM): **Awesome! I'll make sure to change before I head out to Lima. You must be sick of only seeing me in my uniform. I bet you think that the blazer and pants are the only things in my wardrobe, don't you?**

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:40 AM): **I'll have you know that I actually DO know how to dress myself. ;-)**

He received a response from Kurt a few minutes later that made him smile even wider.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:41 AM): **We will just see about that, Blaine. And yes, the thought has crossed my mind a couple of times. I was starting to get worried. I was thinking about dropping you altogether.**

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:42 AM): **I'm crushed, Kurt. Dagger STRAIGHT to the heart. /3**

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 19th 8:42 AM): **Ok, that was a LITTLE dramatic on my part, hehehe. See you tonight?**

He received one final response from Kurt just as the bell rang for class to end.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:57 AM): **A LITTLE dramatic, Blaine? **

Blaine frowned for the briefest of moments before his phone vibrated again.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 19th 8:58 AM): **Just kidding! See you tonight!**

He instantly smiled again and strode off towards his next classes. The day sped by in a blur, as the prospect of hanging out with Kurt again pushed everything out of focus for Blaine. By the time 3:15 rolled around, he was more than happy to go back up to his dorm room and change out of his uniform. He wanted to impress Kurt, since apparently the other boy thought that he had no sense of fashion other than his school uniform. He settled on a pair of slim-fitting dark washed Levi's, a black polo shirt, and his favorite red Ben Sherman cardigan. He truly enjoyed dressing more preppy, as opposed to the other guys at school who all opted for the super skinny jeans, beanies, and baggy tank tops. He would rather look elegant and put together instead of unkempt and juvenile. He finished off the outfit by cuffing his jeans a little bit above the ankle, and putting on his black Oxfords. He hoped that his look said sophisticated, yet still somewhat cool. As he walked out of his room, he bumped into Trent, who seemed to be heading towards his room. "Oh man, I'm sorry, Trent! I didn't see you there," Blaine apologized.

"Hey don't worry about it, Blaine. I wasn't really looking around me either," Trent answered, stopped in his tracks. He looked at Blaine and said, "wow, you look nice man. I love that cardigan. Where are you headed?" he asked.

Blaine smiled at the compliment he received for hist sartorial choices and then replied, "I'm just meeting up with a friend for coffee. Nothing special," he said with a laugh.

Trent tried to hold in his disbelief, but did not succeed, and he finally questioned, "You're meeting a 'friend' for coffee, and you're dressed like that? You sure this isn't a date, man?" and with that, he let out a small chuckle.

"Yeah, he's just a friend," Blaine said. "I am going to meet up with Kurt, the guy who was here last week watching us perform. And for the record, this is how I always dress when I'm out of uniform. I can't really talk very long, otherwise I'm going to be late. It's a long drive to Lima," he added quickly.

Trent gaped at Blaine. "You're driving all the way to LIMA to meet someone for coffee?"

"Yeah, is there something wrong with that?" Blaine asked, starting to grow a tad impatient.

"Not at all, I just wouldn't go somewhere two hours away just to meet up with someone for coffee. Are you absolutely sure that this isn't a date, Blaine?" he asked seriously.

Blaine sighed as he answered, "Yes, Trent. We are just friends. I have to go now, but let's catch up later, yeah?" he added as he turned and made his way towards the entrance hall.

Trent called out after him, "Sounds good. Drive safely and have fun, Blaine!"

"Thanks, I will!" he shouted back, not bothering to turn around, and he headed out the door and jumped into his car.

He arrived at the Lima Bean Coffee Shop right at 6:00 PM, and saw Kurt getting out of his Navigator. "Hey Kurt!" he called, trying to get the boy's attention. He smiled as Kurt caught sight of him. "How was your day?" he asked.

"It was alright. I didn't get pushed into a locker today, so I guess it could have been worse," Kurt answered, trying to sound cheerful. Blaine saw right through it.

Blaine held the door open for Kurt as they walked inside. The barista noticed Blaine immediately and waved joyfully at him. Kurt stole a glance at Blaine and said, "Do you frequent every coffee shop in Lima, Blaine? By the way, you look very nice. I stand corrected. You clearly do know how to dress yourself in something other than the Dalton Academy uniform. Ben Sherman if I am not mistaken, yes?" Kurt said, pointing out Blaine's cardigan.

"Coming from you, that is a very high compliment, and yes! You would be correct. It's probably my favorite cardigan I own. I know. I sort of have a problem. In my defense, coffee is everything that is good in this world," he answered bashfully. "To answer your question, yes, I have been to quite a few of Lima's coffee establishments. Does that happen to you often at school," Blaine asked, going back to the original statement Kurt had made.

Kurt shrugged his shoulders and heaved a heavy sigh. "It's almost a daily occurrence. If I go a single day without being shoved into a locker or dumped into a trash can, I consider myself incredibly lucky for that day," Kurt answered. Blaine could tell that Kurt had to deal with a lot more than your average high school junior.

Blaine instantly wanted to reach out and just hug Kurt and tell him that it would get better. But he knew that would be hypocritical because he did not really know himself. He ran away from his problems. He was not as brave as Kurt was. They quickly ordered their coffee and found a table to sit down at. "You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. You know that?" Blaine said firmly to Kurt. "You've gone through so much crap in your high school life, and you refuse to back down. You continue to be who you are and not give a care in the world what others think of you. I admire that," he continued.

"Thanks, Blaine. I just refuse to change for people because they don't like who I am. I'd rather go through this and keep my integrity intact, than go through high school unscathed and living a lie," Kurt replied honestly.

Blaine was surprised at how honest of a response Kurt had given. "I know exactly what you mean. That's part of the reason why I left Lima High. Even though I was outed, it was not on my terms, so I still felt like I was lying about who I really was, because I did not get to explain it to people. Does that make any sense?" he asked. When Kurt nodded, he continued, "At Dalton, I can just be me, without worrying about how I act, or what I say."

Kurt was listening very intently. After about a minute, he finally spoke up. "It sounds like paradise. I think I might need to do some research into the possibility of transferring."

"I was not kidding when I said that it is really expensive to go to Dalton, Kurt. They do offer scholarships for exceptional students. If you're truly considering it, I definitely think you should look into applying for them," Blaine suggested. He would absolutely love it if Kurt actually ended up transferring to Dalton Academy. It would mean that they got to spend more time together and have their budding friendship become even stronger. He voiced his next thought out loud, "What about all of your friends at McKinley though?"

"In all honesty, I don't think they'd notice too much if I were actually gone," Kurt began. "Even they take part in the banter and poke fun at me on occasion. Mercedes is the only one I truly consider a good friend. She has never done anything to hurt me. I love her," he explained. "I would be sad to leave the glee club, but my safety comes first," Kurt concluded, sounding a little bit more somber.

That really hit home for Blaine. He knew what it was like to have to make a choice like that. He had friends with whom he had developed close relationships with, and he could not bear to leave them. He inevitably chose what was better for his personal safety. Blaine looked Kurt in the eye as he stated, "Whatever decision you make, I'll be there to support you. I know what it's like to feel like you don't have anyone there, and I don't want you to feel like you don't have someone to lean on for support."

"Thank you, Blaine. That means the world to me that you care so much to say something like that," Kurt admitted.

"I meant every word of it," Blaine stated with a smile.

They spent the next couple of hours simply talking about whatever came to their minds. Blaine took the time to tell Kurt a bit about himself seeing as how he already knew quite a bit about Kurt. He talked about his older brother who lived in Hollywood working as an actor, how he and his father attempted to bond over rebuilding a car over the summer, and how Blaine hoped to make it as a musician after high school.

Kurt filled Blaine in on what was going on for him at school. Blaine listened as Kurt explained how his glee club teacher was out sick, and the club had a substitute. Blaine had to admit, her name sounded a bit like a porn star's, but he was not one to judge. The two of them talked and laughed for what felt like hours, before Kurt had to leave to finish some homework.

"Thanks for coming all the way out to Lima to have coffee, Blaine. It was great getting to hang out and talk with you," Kurt said as he got up out of his chair and started putting his coat on.

He could not hide the smile that was creeping onto his face. As they walked out of the Lima Bean, Blaine turned to Kurt and replied, "Anytime, Kurt. I like hanging out with you. And hey, the two hour drive is worth it. Plus, the coffee at the Lima Bean is amazing!" he exclaimed.

"Your addiction to coffee is bordering on scary, Blaine," Kurt deadpanned to Blaine.

Blaine scoffed and retorted, "I do not have a coffee addiction!" He stood in place and made a mock pout face to Kurt.

Kurt simply laughed at him and shot back, "Hey Blaine, you know denial?"

"Yeah," Blaine said, somewhat confused. "Why?" he questioned.

"It's not just a river in Egypt," Kurt said quickly and burst into uncontrollable snickering.

Blaine rolled his eyes at Kurt, and said, "Goodbye, Kurt! Have a good night," he added as he climbed into his Jetta and drove off back towards Westerville. When he got home, he changed into his pajamas and tried to finish the small pile of homework he had so he could finally have a weekend to himself just to relax. It was after midnight by the time he finally finished, and Blaine was exhausted. He switched his lights off and went to sleep.

Blaine woke up a little after 11:00. He immediately reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his phone and searched for Kurt's phone number. He started typing out a text message to him until he heard a voice speak out in protest, saying, "Blaine, you just saw him day before yesterday, and you already want to hang out with him again? You don't want the kid to get sick of you!" Blaine rubbed his eyes and saw that both Wes and David were sitting on either side of his bed. He put his phone down and thought about it for a moment and realized that Wes was right. They really had only known each other for a little over a week. He didn't want to come on too strong, and send Kurt any sort of mixed signals.

David and Wesley could be so ridiculous sometimes. They really enjoyed taunting Blaine whenever he took even a remote interest in someone of the same sex, whether it be platonic or otherwise. Even when things began with Xander, the two of them were all over him asking for details, and what the guy was like. They were now doing the same thing with him about Kurt. They insisted that he had feelings that were something else than platonic, but Blaine countered them by saying that he had only known Kurt for a week. Their twin smirks said everything that their words did not. They didn't believe him for a second. "Thank you both of you for proving my theory; guys are just as, if not more gossipy than girls," Blaine shot back at them. It was at that moment that he felt his phone vibrating. He pulled out his phone, seeing that he had received a text message from Kurt. He glanced up, seeing that the two of them were giving him another one of their dubious looks. At that moment, he chose to put his phone back in his bag, knowing that he would not be able to have a good conversation with Kurt if the two of them were staring at him the whole time.

"And just who might THAT be, Anderson?" David questioned, anything but casually. He laughed loudly after seeing that Blaine was getting frustrated. Wes was also in hysterics at Blaine's reaction.

Blaine glared daggers at both of them, but then said jokingly, "I hate you both. Goodbye David. Goodbye Wesley." After they had shut his door, Blaine again took his phone out of his bag

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 4:35 PM): **Hey Blaine, if you're not too busy on Wednesday night, would you be up to joining Mercedes and me for dinner at Breadstix? We do it every Wednesday night, and I would love for you to meet her. She's my best friend at McKinley. If it's too far for you, I totally understand.**

He took a look at his calendar and saw that Warblers rehearsal ran until about 5:00, so he could make it to Lima by 7:00 if there was no traffic. He did also want to get to know some of Kurt's friends, seeing as how Kurt had already met David and Wes, who were basically extensions of Blaine himself. He typed out a response and pressed the send button.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 4:41 PM): **Kurt! That should work out perfectly. I get out of Warbler rehearsal at 5:00, so I won't be able to make it until around 7:00. Is that ok?**

Blaine received a response from Kurt within minutes of him sending his previous message.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 4:43 PM): **Yeah, that's fine. See you then!**

As he read it, Blaine couldn't help but picture Kurt getting really excited at the prospect of hime meeting one of Kurt's friends. He typed out one last response before he went to finish his homework.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 4:45 PM): **Sounds like a plan, Kurt! I am excited to meet your friend. Hopefully I make a good impression on her! :-)**

Blaine did not know why he added the emoticon. Part of it was probably that he wanted Kurt to know that he truly was excited and happy to get to meet one of his friends. He moved to put his phone back in his bag before it vibrated again, notifying him of another text message. He decided to just abandon his homework for a while and chat with Kurt.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 4:46 PM): **I don't think you will have a problem with that. I've talked to her about you. She said she cannot wait to meet you, and see who the guy is that has been occupying all of my time. She wanted to hang out on Friday, but I told her I had plans with you, hence, my inviting you to dinner with us.**

He could not help but laugh. He was actually making a girl jealous.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 4:46 PM): **Oh god, she's not jealous of me is she? Is she going to give me the third degree when we meet? :-o**

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 4:47 PM): **Not jealous, per se, but she's definitely a bit frustrated that I have been neglecting her. Also she's up in arms because our crazy new principal slash former cheerleading coach has banned tater tots from school lunch. Mercedes likes her food. A lot.**

Blaine chuckled again. He was already getting a sense of who Mercedes was, and he had not even met her yet. His intrigue and excitement grew even further. He began typing a response to Kurt.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 4:54 PM): **She definitely sounds like a character! I can relate to her on the food issue. Dalton used to have these fried chicken things... they were DELICIOUS! But the headmaster decided that this was the year he was going to introduce healthy food to the Dalton Academy menu. So goodbye fried chicken goodness, hello depressed student body. :-(**

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 4:56 PM): **Wow, that kind of sounds exactly like what is going on here. There was a riot in the cafeteria on Friday. On a different note, you like to use emoticons, don't you, Blaine?**

His eyes widened a bit at this. Blaine was not used to people noticing the small quirks that he had.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 5:00 PM): **You noticed that, huh? Yeah, I kind of do, lol. I figure that text messages are a little emotionless, so why not put in an emoticon to let the other person know the nature of your message. Insert happy smiley face right :-) there. ;-)**

He enjoyed engaging in a little bit of boisterous teasing every now and then. He was laughing to himself as Kurt's response made itself known to Blaine's phone.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 5:03 PM): **Teasing will get you nowhere, Anderson. ;-)**

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 5:03 PM): **Pot, meet kettle.**

A couple of minutes passed before Blaine received a response.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Sunday November 21st 5:07 PM): **Touché, my friend. Touché. I've got a bit of homework that I need to finish. Text me on Wednesday! **

Blaine typed out a quick final response.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Sunday November 21st 5:08 PM): **Will do, Kurt. Have a good rest of your evening, and I'll chat with you later! I'm also REALLY looking forward to RENT on Friday! **

With that, he put his phone away, and set to completing the last of his homework before class on Monday.

That Monday passed with nothing really out of the ordinary happening. Blaine just went to class, took notes, and did his homework. Tuesday brought an extra Warblers rehearsal in which they just did some vocal exercises in harmonizing and blending. Wes had sent him a text later that night saying that at the rehearsal tomorrow, they would be taking suggestions on their setlist for Sectionals, which was in three weeks. The next day, Blaine made his way to the Senior Commons, which had become the unofficial Warblers rehearsal space. He already noticed that Wes, Thad and David were already seated behind their desk, in full council mode. None of the other guys had made it to rehearsal yet, so this gave Blaine an opportunity to chat with all of them. "Hey guys! How was your weekend?" he asked casually.

"Don't try and act all casual with us, Anderson," Wes said coyly, with a sly grin on his face. "We know you spent the majority of your Sunday texting Kurt," he added.

Blaine glared at him, trying his best to look angry. "Wesley, once again, it was nothing. We are FRIENDS. The last thing the guy needs is a boyfriend. Even if I was interested in pursuing something more, I don't think that I am ready for another relationship either," he said exhaustedly. Wes was always the more boisterous one between himself and David. He saw the two of them exchange looks with each other, not believing him. "I. Hate. You. Both," he said flatly. "By the way, I have the perfect idea for one of our songs at Sectionals," he added.

"What were you thinking? PLEASE don't tell me it's another Katy Perry song. I mean 'Teenage Dream' was amazing, but I don't think it would be good for a competition piece," Thad explained quickly.

Blaine laughed to himself at Thad's immediate disdain for Katy Perry. It was the exact reaction that he had pictured when he came up with his song choice. "Contrary to popular belief, I actually listen to other music besides that of the lovely Katy Perry. What I was going to suggest was that we should do 'Hey, Soul Sister' by Train. It's a mellow number, and it works perfectly for an a capella group," he reasoned. He knew that he needed to put up a good fight for anything Top 40 or more modern. David, Wes and Thad were all fans of the more traditional show choir music. However, they were the only three in the group that were, which made it difficult when it came to any sort of song choice, seeing as how the three of them ultimately had final say in what they performed. They did not seem convinced right away judging by the looks Blaine saw on all three of their faces.

Wes finally spoke up as a few of the Warblers started trickling in, "We will give your suggestion some consideration, and will have a decision within a week. With the rest of the guys strolling in, Blaine knew that their discussion had to be tabled. He would try and rally some of the guys around him in order to gain support.

The majority of rehearsal was spent taking suggestions from the Warblers as to what they wanted to do for Sectionals. Since they did not have a formal director, it became chaotic a couple of times, and Wes had to pound his gavel on his desk in order to restore order to the group. Blaine heard suggestions ranging from the brilliance that is Adele, to the absolutely ridiculous idea of doing N* Sync. "Hey! N* Sync is cool," Blaine heard one guy pipe up and say.

The idea was immediately shot down by a resounding "NO" by all three council members at once. 5:00 rolled around and nothing had really been decided. Wes stood up before the group and stated, "This meeting is now adjourned. We shall meet on Sunday at the same time. The meeting is mandatory, seeing as we still do not have an official setlist," he continued. With that being said, he hit his gavel on the desk, and the guys began to exit the room. Blaine was the last to leave. Wes stopped him and said, "Hey man, I think we are going to go with your suggestion. I can't say this officially until Sunday, but it's definitely the most logical one that we have heard," he explained.

Blaine beamed from ear to ear as he listened to Wes speak. "Thanks, man! That makes me feel good that you're going with it! Maybe sometime soon, you can convince the council to go with my idea of doing a Destiny's Child song," Blaine said halfway seriously.

"Don't push your luck, buddy," Wes retorted. "Now get out of here, I can tell that you have somewhere else you need to be," he added. Blaine then rushed out of the room. He ran upstairs to pack a bag for the long weekend he would be spending in Lima for Thanksgiving, and then headed out.

He arrived at Breadstix at about ten minutes after 7:00 PM and hurried inside, spotting Kurt immediately. He moseyed on over to their table and began apologizing profusely. "Hey Kurt! I am so sorry I'm late. Rehearsal ran a little bit late, and there was traffic on the way over here," he explained of his tardiness. He looked over and saw the girl that was sitting across from Kurt, and he stretched out his hand. "This must be Mercedes? I'm Blaine Anderson, it is a pleasure to meet you," he said as he shook Mercedes' hand and took a seat beside Kurt.

"Nice to finally meet the boy stealing my man Kurt away from me," she answered. A hint of nerves crossed Blaine's face, but then Mercedes started laughing as she said, "I'm just joking, It's nice to meet you too, Blaine. Kurt has talked a lot about you. I hope he's only said good things about me if he knows what's good for him," she said as she winked at Blaine.

Kurt put on a face of mock shock as he replied, "I am shocked that you would insinuate that I say anything but fabulous things about you Miss Jones!" He nudged her shoulder and Blaine saw them engage in a playful banter. It was clear to him that the two of them were obviously very close, and had their fair share of experiences with each other. It warmed Blaine's heart to see that Kurt was not completely alone.

"Kurt has told me so much about you, Mercedes. He mentioned how you positively murdered your first glee club audition, and how you out-diva'd Rachel Berry in your duets competition! Should I be worried for when Sectionals comes along?" he questioned humorously. That elicited a laugh from Mercedes, and the two of them immediately became more comfortable with each other.

Mercedes took another look at Blaine, then turned her head to look at Kurt, and exclaimed, "I like this boy already, Kurt! You can keep him around!" And she let out a laugh.

Blaine saw that Kurt was blushing, so he tried to steer the conversation in a different direction so as to keep Kurt from feeling awkward. "Well it is very nice to know that I have won the approval of New Directions' resident diva!" He saw Mercedes look his way and winked at her. 'Mission accomplished,' he thought to himself.

"Did you hear about 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell possibly being repealed, Blaine?" Kurt queried, also trying to bring up another subject.

Blaine lit up when he heard Kurt ask that question. Social equality was something that was very near and dear to Blaine's heart. Despite loving performing, being active in the fight for LGBT rights was something that Blaine also desired to do when he grew older. "I have been hearing whispers that legislation might be in the works for next year," he answered, getting more and more entranced in the conversation. "It's not as if I am going to run off and join the military right out of high school, but it would be nice to know that the option is there," he continued.

Kurt nodded his head in agreement. "I know exactly what you mean. I know that I'm not the military-joining type, but I know for a fact that there are thousands of gay men and women around the country who would love the opportunity to serve their country, and be open about who they truly are," he contributed. He looked across the table at Mercedes, who only seemed vaguely interested in the current topic of discussion. "I just hope it doesn't go the same route that Prop 8 did in California. I was so angry when it actually passed a couple of years ago," he said, a hint of anger evident in his voice.

"I know exactly what you mean, and I agree with you. It just makes me really glad that I don't live in California. I mean, I know that gay marriage is not federally recognized, but for a state to simply deny a group of people their basic civil rights is absolutely horrid," Blaine explained with fervor. It was a topic that really riled him up. He did not like to see others dictating what he, or others like him were able to do with their lives. He stole a quick look at Kurt, enjoying how enthusiastic he was becoming in their discussion. He did however, feel a little bad that Mercedes was not really contributing much to discussion. Maybe she didn't feel included enough. He decided that he would make an effort to try and involve her in their conversation. Blaine turned his attention back to Kurt, still tuning in to what he was saying.

Kurt nodded his head in agreement. "I completely agree. In the states where it's legal for gays to marry, there have not been any instances of gay couples divorcing. I think that speaks for itself," he stated strongly. "I'm just saying that drunk people who get married to someone they met an hour ago by an Elvis impersonator, I mean that's a bigger insult to marriage than two gay guys getting hitched," Kurt explained of his viewpoint, a hint of witty sarcasm in his voice.

"Totally. It's like if marriage is so sacred, they should just outlaw divorce," Blaine inserted. He stole another glance at Mercedes, who looked like she had completely tuned out.

"Right, right. Right." Kurt said in agreement.

"What do you think, Mercedes?" Blaine queried, trying his best to make her feel included in what they were talking about.

Mercedes perked her head up, surprised that she had been acknowledged "Oh about, uh, Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" she tried, absolutely unsure of what the two boys were even talking about.

Kurt rolled his eyes when she asked her question. Clearly she had not been paying attention to what they were saying at all. "No, we're on Prop 8 now," he said exasperatedly. Blaine could tell that Kurt did not like when people did not pay attention to what he was saying.

"Totally for it!" she exclaimed, trying to sound interested and informed.

"Against it," Kurt practically snapped back at her.

She shrugged her shoulders as she admitted defeat. "Right. I'm sorry, I kinda just blanked out," she explained apologetically.

"No, don't apologize. We should talk about stuff that you're interested in too," Blaine interjected, trying to rush to Mercedes' defense and get her involved in their discussion. He hated feeling like the third wheel, and even though it was not a date situation, it was clear that that's how Mercedes felt.

Before she could answer though, Kurt interjected again, trying to keep conversation moving. "I know. Let's play a game," he suggested. When he received no opposition, he continued, "Ok on the count of three, name your favorite 2010 'Vogue' cover. Ready? One, two, three."

"Marion Cotillard!" Kurt and Blaine both shouted at the exact same time. They glanced at each other and chuckled.

Blaine was shocked that someone else had the same sentiments about Marion Cotillard's cover. He burst out with "Oh my god, STOP IT! She's AMAZING!"

"YES! AMAZING!" Kurt continued, obviously sharing Blaine's sentiment.

Blaine turned to Mercedes, intent on getting her to chat with the two of them. "So Mercedes, I know that Kurt is not the biggest sports fan, and he said that you watched a bit. What do you think of the Ohio State Buckeyes?" he questioned, attempting to stay on somewhat of a neutral subject. When she did not answer, Blaine got a puzzled look on his face.

"Mercedes? MERCEDES?" Kurt said her name loudly enough to catch her attention. She shook her head out of whatever daydream she appeared to be having.

Blaine glanced at her and gave her a small smile as he restated, "I was just talking about the Buckeyes. I'm a college football fan. I like sports too, you know."

"Oh, way to break the stereotype," Kurt replied happily. He raised his hand up to Blaine, and the two of them exchanged a high five. They both shared a small chuckle as their server made her way over to the table.

"Excuse me, I know it's not on your menu, but I was wondering if you guys had some..." Mercedes asked quickly, as if trying to hide the fact that she really wanted some sort of junk food.

Their server looked at her knowingly, a smile crossing her face."You want some tots? You guys must go to McKinley," she said jovially.

"So, what were we talking about?" Mercedes asked happily, finally getting something that she wanted.

Kurt broached a new subject by asking, "Has anyone read Patti Lupone's new book?" Blaine decided that he was going to have a little fun with Kurt. He hesitated in answering the question, instead opting for putting a puzzled look on his face, as if he had no idea what Kurt was talking about, or who Patti Lupone even was.

Finally, after a couple moments of Kurt looking as if he got slapped, Blaine said heartily, "I'm kidding, of course I have," and he started laughing.

"Ok, good. You scared me so much right there. I almost thought that you had no idea who Patti Lupone was," Kurt said, thankful that Blaine had a shred of culture.

"Who's Patti Lupone?" Mercedes asked feebly. She did not want to face Kurt's ire.

Blaine looked across the table at her and began to explain, "She's a Broadway legend. She was Eva Perón in_ Evita_, and also played the original Fantine in _Les Miserables, _and most recently she was in _Gypsy._" He saw Kurt's nod of approval and was glad that he had at least some Broadway knowledge.

"I didn't think you knew that much about Broadway, Blaine. Your past music choices have given me the impression that you're more of a Top 40 type of guy," Kurt said surprisingly.

"Hey! I listen to more than Top 40, Kurt! My iPod happens to have its fair share of show tunes along with my vast selection of amazing Top 40 hits," Blaine said in defense of his musical tastes. He laughed to himself. They only knew each other for two weeks and already they were bantering as if they had been friends for months.

Mercedes finally weighed in on the conversation with, "Not everyone is a show tune diva, Kurt! I myself am a big fan of the lovely Ms. Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, and many others."

"Oh my god, I LOVE Destiny's Child," Blaine practically shouted when he heard Mercedes mention Beyonce's name. "I've been trying to get the Warblers to do an arrangement of one of their songs for a while, but they won't go for it," he added, glad that Mercedes was participating in conversation.

Mercedes raised her hand to high five Blaine and said, "I AM Beyonce, I AIN'T no Kelly Rowland!" Kurt laughed out loud as she said those words.

"Blaine, don't mind her, she has been saying that since our first glee club rehearsal last year," Kurt chimed in. "To her credit though, she does have an absolutely amazing voice," he added to his statement.

Mercedes cast him an evil look, but then laughed as she stated, "Please, Kurt. We both know that I am the best female voice in that group. Rachel 'goody-two-shoes' Berry ain't got NOTHING on this diva!" She patted herself on the shoulder as she finished and Blaine could not help but laugh. At that moment, their server returned, carrying a plate of tater tots. Mercedes' eyes lit up as she had the plate placed in front of her.

"Can I get anything else for you guys?" she asked kindly, looking at Kurt and Blaine.

"Could I please get a chicken caesar salad, easy on the croutons?" Kurt requested.

The server sent a smile his way as she answered, "Of course, darling." She then turned to Blaine and said, "And for you, dear?"

"I will get the aglio olio pasta, and could I also trouble you for a doppio espresso if you wouldn't mind?" Blaine asked, using his best manners. He heard giggles coming from across the table and beside him, but he paid no attention until the server nodded at him and was out of earshot. "What are the two of you giggling at?" he asked, casting sidelong glances at the two of them.

Mercedes was the first to answer through her laughter, "You. Where did you learn to speak so properly? It's like you're not even from this time. Also, Kurt was right. You definitely do have a coffee addiction," she said to him.

"I told you, 'cedes!" Kurt shouted to her, also trying to control his chuckling.

Blaine simply blushed, but ignored their taunts. "I do not!" he shouted as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. When he saw they were both laughing, he could not contain his own, and he continued, "You both can thank my father for my mannerisms. The one thing he taught me was to always be a gentleman," he explained of the reason why he spoke with such a sophisticated tone. "I have people tell me I am an old soul," he continued.

Kurt stopped laughing immediately. "How did you just say people described you?" he queried.

"People tell me that I am an old soul. That I am a 40 year old man trapped in a 16 year old body," Blaine answered. He was curious as to why Kurt took an interest at that term.

"That is exactly how Kurt described you to me," Mercedes stated.

"Then I guess it must be true," Blaine agreed humorously. The rest of their meal was spent carrying on conversation, Blaine getting to know more about Mercedes and Kurt, and before he knew it, it was almost 10:00 PM. Blaine took a quick glance at his watch and gasped. "Wow, I had no idea it was already so late. I need to be heading back to Westerville. I have a mountain of homework that is screaming for me," he explained. The check came by and he quickly snatched it and placed his American Express card inside the sleeve and handed it to the server.

"Blaine you didn't have to do that," Kurt said, somewhat shocked at the gesture.

He smiled and replied, "I don't mind, honestly. Thank you both for inviting me out tonight, and providing great company," he said kindly to the both of them. The server returned to their table within a few minutes and Blaine scooped up his card and slid out of the booth, Mercedes and Kurt following suit. The three of them exchanged hugs in the parking lot and all left their separate ways. Blaine drove to his house and opened the door quietly. He assumed that both of his parents were asleep, so he snuck into his room and slipped out of his uniform. He changed into some pajama bottoms and a sweater and went to bed, thinking about the upcoming long weekend.

The next two days could not have gone any slower. Blaine sat through Thanksgiving dinner patiently, although he did enjoy the food. He refrained from digging his phone out of his pocket, because he was with his family and he did not want to seem rude. All he could think about was the fact that he was getting to see his favorite musical the next night, and he was going to get to hang out with Kurt again. When he got back from the mall with his parents on Friday afternoon, Blaine sprinted up to his room. He set the RENT Original Broadway Cast Recording on repeat, and jumped into the shower to start getting ready for the evening. He pulled out a pair of red chino pants, paired with a basic black button-down shirt, and a navy blue color blocked cardigan that he had spied at the mall in Cincinnati a few hours previously. He was not one for shopping, but Black Friday brought out his inner shopper. The show started at 8:00 PM, his house by 7:00 he could pick up Kurt and they could grab coffee before the show began. He put the final touches on his hair, and then pulled out his phone to text Kurt.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 26th 6:55 PM): **Kurt! Kurt! Kurt! KURT!**

He got a response from Kurt almost immediately.

To Blaine Anderson (sent Friday November 26th 6:55 PM): **Hey Blaine.**

Blaine typed out a quick message and left his house to get into his car.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 26th 7:00 PM): **I'm leaving my house right now, I should be at your place in about 10 minutes. We can grab a coffee at the Lima Bean before we go to the show.**

He did not get a response, but he did arrive at Kurt's house within ten minutes, and texted to Kurt.

To Kurt Hummel (sent Friday November 26th 7:10 PM): **I'm here! **

Kurt came outside and waved to Blaine as he stepped into the car. They both gave each other a quick hug and drove off. They made a quick stop over at the Lima Bean where they both ordered their coffee with haste and headed on to the theatre to see RENT. The two of them found their seats and were surprised to realize that they were only six rows away from the stage, and were sitting dead center. "We have a perfect view," Blaine whispered into Kurt's ear as the lights dimmed, signaling the start of the show. He completely lost himself in the music. Blaine had always loved RENT ever since he was old enough to understand what it meant. By the time "Take Me Or Leave Me" was being performed by two of the female actresses, Blaine was lip-syncing along with them. He looked to his side and saw that Kurt was watching him with a smile on his face. Blaine blushed, and turned his head back toward the stage, continuing with his lip-synced version of the song.

After the show ended, the two boys were walking to Blaine's car, both shivering from the coldness that was in the air. The entire ride home, the two of them could speak of nothing except how amazing the musical was, and how both of them wanted to be in it. Blaine wanted to be Mark Cohen, while Kurt thought that he could make a good reinterpretation of Collins. As Blaine pulled up to Kurt's house, he wished Kurt a good night. Kurt hesitated from getting out of Blaine's car, and then said, "Blaine, before I leave, there's something I have to tell you."

"What's up, Kurt?" Blaine asked casually.

Kurt took a deep breath in, and answered hesitantly, "I had the best time tonight. Thank you so much for inviting me to see it with you." He had a smile on his face when he finished speaking.

Blaine smiled back at him and said, "You're more than welcome, Kurt. I'm glad you had fun."

"I definitely did," he replied to Blaine. As he got out of the car, he added, "Drive safely home, Blaine, and have a good rest of your long weekend."

At that moment, Blaine also got out of his car, and moved to give Kurt a quick hug. As they pulled apart, he said, "Thanks! I will, and you do the same." With that, Blaine got back into the warmth of his car and drove off to his house.


End file.
